Infinite Facet
by Potential Violet
Summary: Parasite. Product. Instrument. Warrior. Traitor. Lover. Whatever Celestine was, she became a Crystal Gem to protect this world, and through her choice she lost that which meant most to her. Millennia later the universe offers her a chance to be happy, but to accept it she must first accept herself, and the dark history she wishes she could forget...
1. Russell and Celestine

_Prologue_

…

Morganite proffers her hand to me, with that telltale gleam in her eye. If I accept - as I have done countless times before - I know it will end in tears, silent tears, in the calm and quiet aftermath of what is sure to be another massacre. I can't do it, not again. I've promised myself that last time was the last time, but then again the time before that was also supposed to be the last time, and the time before that, and…

No, it has to stop here; otherwise we might never split up again. …But maybe that's a good thing: if she and I are permanently one then perhaps I'll stop feeling so… wrong, all the time, so guilty.

Perhaps.

"Please, Morganite, I can't… not this time." I say softly, my voice trembling a little.

"What do you mean you _can't_?" Morganite responds carefully, emphasising the last word and narrowing her eyes at me.

…

Morganite has been expecting this for a few weeks now, this rejection, or something like it; but being prepared does nothing to quell the feeling of panic that is fast rising in her chest. Celestine has been more and more hesitant about fusing each time they are about to do it, and she is _going_ to find out why.

…

"Or do you mean you don't _want_ to?" she adds, viciously.

"Oh come on Morganite, you know that's not what I mean. I do want to, so please don't look at me like that. I just… can't."

…

It's true, I really do want to. I love being fused with Morganite, it's the most incredible thing I've ever felt, and I love every part of the process:

The aggressive - yet at the same time graceful (if I do say so myself) - steps of the fusion dance that we've carried out time and again, and made our thing; ending with her arms wrapped around me, and my head tilted back, resting on her shoulder.

I feel totally relaxed, like all the tension in my body has just evaporated and left me. Then there's that falling feeling, we just fall backwards into this brightening light, brightening until you can't see anything else. We never hit the ground though, because the ground has disappeared, and we disappear too; everything that we are diffuses out into this brilliant white space, every part of us, filling every part of it. It's strange, but it's a nice feeling, serene and warm and safe: safe because Morganite is right there with me.

Then our two Gems move apart, expanding our dazzling little universe; once they're in position it's easy to reshape the space around us: every limb, every curve and every part 'knows' where it needs to be, and fits together as though it's always been this way. As though there was no other configuration we could possible take.

The sudden change in the atmosphere comes last - like breaking the water's surface after a deep dive - and with it this feeling of increased mass, of density. It's a feeling of being reformed where a moment ago, you were not.

For me, the best part of fusion is being as close as it is possible to be to the one that means most to me in the universe. My thoughts, my actions and my wishes are also hers, but I'm not her, I'm not even myself at that point. _We_ are so much more. I find it amazing every single time it happens, that the two of us can form a single someone that is similar to each of us, but something totally new at the same time.

…

"So you _want _to, but you _can't_?" says Morganite, "Why can't you?"

"Because I'm… I feel… When we fuse I don't want to come apart, it's like I'm getting addicted to it."

Hearing this, she reaches out to stroke my cheek and I allow her, placing my own hands on her shoulders. We have a job to do but this is important, and the others will be fine without us for a while anyway. We both know that we _need_ to have this conversation.

"Would that be so bad," she asks quietly, "being addicted to _us_? Being fused… and with me always?"

* * *

I wonder what the Gems from Homeworld would say if they could see me now? Not only am I still here on Earth, but I share the home of a human. I'm very lucky to have met Russell; I was definitely in the right place at the right time. A lot of humans might have tried to apprehend me and have me sent to area 51, tell the world that they'd 'discovered' me, or simply run a mile at the mention of an alien - though if you think about it, they're more alien that I am: I was 'born' here over 6000 years ago, the oldest humans aren't even a day over 150 years old - not Russell though, he's been very understanding of my desire to remain in the shadows. If I hadn't met him I wouldn't have learned anywhere near as much about the customs of modern humans as I have, and the lessons have been both entertaining and fascinating.

He's over there on the bed now, sleeping away; I still find it peculiar how humans can sleep so much when their lives are so short, but the human body strange is like that. Every so often he'll say something: hair knitting, the office supplies arts and crafts guild, lawn exchange and crossover battle shipping are all concepts that I've come to know about through this 'sleep language' that he uses. I wish I could see what he sees when he sleeps; it's a whole part of his world that I can't be a part of, no matter how hard I try.

And I have tried before: for a whole month I lay on the floor next to him while he slept… The first few days didn't go well, I kept waking him up when I started laughing at myself - it felt pretty silly; me, a Gem, practicing sleep? - then I just lay there all night, staring into the backs of my eyelids.

But after a time I started having dreams…

I was expecting to see Russell in my dreams as we were sleeping in the same room at the same time, but he told me that isn't how it works. I was disappointed about it at first, but now I realise that it was very fortunate.

Even when I'm awake, the war is something that I try not to think about; when I'm dreaming it feels like I'm actually there, sometimes reliving memories and other times experiencing alternative histories (most of which are even worse than the truth). If Russell could see my dreams, see me as I was… I don't even want to know what he'd think of me; and if he sent me away, how could I go back to that endless loneliness?

He suspects something though.

He might be so laid back that he's _in_ the floor, but he certainly isn't stupid. Like when my screaming woke him up in the middle of the night and I tore a few holes in his apartment with my throwing stars, before he threw water on me to wake me up. Like the time I told him that the other Gems just 'decided to leave' 5000 or so years ago, and he asked me why I chose to stay when no one else did. I told him that 'I just like it here... I like humans, they're so different from Gems.'

Too much hesitation.

Not enough information to make sense.

He knows that there's more to the story than I've told him. It's just a matter of time before he asks about it…


	2. The Second Rejection

So, Russell and I have spent the day riding the train, drinking coffee and taking photos. We got bored of the train eventually, and at about eight o'clock I had the great idea of walking home. Three hours later it didn't seem like such a great idea: his feet hurt, and we ran out of film. Now we're here on the bean bags, talking about what to do next.

...

Feigning a yawn I stretch my hands over my head, before slowly lowering my arms. I make sure to loop the left one over Russell's neck and shoulder, just like the gentleman in the film demonstrated. Perfect! No wonder humans invest so much time and money in these moving pictures.

It hasn't even been ten seconds when I start to hear a breathy noise to my left. As I glance over, whatever control Russell had has gone out the window and he bursts out laughing as he catches my eyes. Every so often the noise dies down and he tries to speak... but fails. By the third round of attempted communication I'm totally confused, why is he laughing so hard? She didn't laugh like this in the film…

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he finally speaks, "That was great!"

"What was great?" I'm pleased about my good fortune, but I still don't understand where the humour came from.

"That thing you just did, with your arm."

"Thank you, but if that's true then why are you laughing?"

"Because that's what people in movies do when they're trying to get closer to someone they like, but it's never a serious thing, most of the time it fails. And normally it's the guy who does it to the girl."

"Oh. Maybe that's why it didn't fail this time - because you're a guy and I'm a Gem." He opens his mouth as if to say something, but nothing comes out. I laugh because he looks confused now (and more than a bit like a fish), but it doesn't last long: his smile fades and his eyes close, and before I know it his lips are less than an inch from mine.

…

I know what's _supposed_ to happen now: I close my eyes, tilt my head at the same angle (but opposite direction) as his, and move that short distance to accept the kiss. I'm probably out of practice… it's been a long time. Oh goodness, how can we be this close? This isn't what I want. Actually, it really is: we've been getting closer every day since I met him, and wasn't it I who mere moments ago employed a tactic to bring myself physically closer to him? I must want this…

He's human though. How could a Gem and a human have a real relationship; how could I watch him grow old and die, and then go on without him? I'm not strong enough to go through something like that, not again.

The time for thinking has obviously passed, as an impatient Russell bridges the gap between us, and kisses me for the first time.

This _is_ what I want.

I've been on my own for so long, and now I don't have to be. Wouldn't it would be worth something to be happy, even if only for a few years? I can't think straight. Should I be thinking at all? No, I should just enjoy this moment. But this is too much, and the timing is all wrong. He doesn't even know the truth! If he knew what I used to be, knew about the things I'd done… he wouldn't want me.

Me, me, me, I, I, I. Everything is about me! It hits me that I've been so selfish, and then there's only one thought in my mind.

'How can I do this to Morganite?'

I push him away. **_Hard_**. Much harder than I mean to.

The distance between the beanbags and the wall isn't too far, but he slams into it awkwardly, hard enough to wind him when he hits it. I hear the "oof!" sound he makes as it happens. I can't believe what I've just done: jumping to my feet I rush over to where he's fallen, to help him up and check that he's alright. As I bend forward to assist him he breaks my heart: when he flinches and raises his arms as if to protect himself, I know I can't stay here any longer. Not even remembering to grab my few things, I open the door and run out into the night.

…

Russell picks himself up off the floor and gives himself the once over. When he's ninety percent sure that nothing is broken - though he is acutely aware that at some point in the recent past, a wall played a crucial role in his rapid deceleration - and he can breathe normally again, he checks to see if she really _has_ left:

"Celestine? …Celestine, are you there?"

No reply. Of course she's left... why else would there be a draft from the front door? Shoes are hastily pulled on, keys pocketed and a coat grabbed; a double take in the mirror reveals that his hair is a complete mess, but there are more important messes at hand right now, that one will have to wait. Though he can drive, a car hasn't been high on his list of things to buy, "… that's because all the time I spend on public transport really helps with my creative process," he says to himself.

"That's great and everything... but you should really get a car." the self admonishes.

The self is right, a car would be a lot more helpful right now…

He's sure she'll go to the hill eventually, but she's on foot and he's got to take the bus, so she's going to be there for ages before he arrives. From what he knows of her he's confident that she won't do anything drastic before he can reach her, he's only seen her do something like this once before (and even that was in her sleep). Still, there's a grain of unshakable fear of what she could do if she wasn't thinking straight, she has some incredible powers. She could cause a lot of damage if she was in the wrong state, and he'd hate for anyone to come to any harm because of him, even indirectly. More importantly he hopes that she's going to be okay; when he told her that she had a deep sadness in her eyes, he wasn't joking. He should have got her to talk about it sooner, then this wouldn't have happened...

…

Buildings, bright lights and people fly past me in a blur of surprised expressions and vehicle horns. I'm moving so quickly that they don't even register that it was a person that just sped past. My thoughts are moving even faster than that; the same ones over and over and over again. Every time I try to grasp one and think it through, the others bring themselves into focus - they all seem as important as each other, there is no hierarchy, the correct solution of one is a mistake in all the rest. Everything else is getting smaller and smaller until the only things that exist are me, and how I'm never going to solve this.

The sprint slows to a jog; the jog, a walk; the walk, a stop. When I left the apartment I didn't realise I was coming here, but it makes sense that that's where I am. It's quiet at the park - no one is about, but that's not surprising considering the time - and with all the reminders of Russell (and in a way, of Morganite) surrounding me, I sit down on a bench and I finally have my breakdown.

…

Fifteen minutes after Celestine sits down, Russell gets up. At last his bus has arrived at the stop nearest the hill, and he jogs the whol... most of the way up, in a hurry to put things right with Celestine. Taking a minute to catch his breath, he looks around for her.

There she is.

She looks so perfect, sitting there in the moonlight. Her skin seems to almost glow: a faint, ghostly, pale blue. The phrase 'once in a blue moon' comes to mind, and he smiles at his own lack of seriousness. The smile widens, "Father would not approve…" Then again, father probably wouldn't approve of having an alien 'sort-of-girlfriend' with a magic gemstone embedded in her palm either, but such is life…

He knows her ears never miss a thing, so he doesn't have to worry about surprising her, no matter how quietly he approaches.

And there it is.

She looks in his direction, as if to make sure it's him, and then goes back to staring straight ahead.

…

It's very rare that Russell feels apprehensive - "...it messes with my flow of chi," he once told a disbelieving friend, "bad vibrations and all that." - because for him, there are very few things worth feeling stressed about. But Celestine is one of them, and he knows that what happens next is going to be extremely important for them both.

As the distance between them shortens he feels calmer, and by the time he stands in front of her -and she peers up at him with those curious, cut-crystal eyes; he's sure everything is going to be fine.

…

When the noise in my mind finally started to die down I knew it was only temporary, it always is. When I cry, I make sure that Russell has gone out for something so he can't see me. I know that if he does then he'll be able to make me talk about it, and I wasn't ready to talk before. I'm not sure if I'm ready now, but that's what is going to happen.

Seeing him here, now, brings it all back: the guilt, the fear of losing him, the panic. As he gets closer, my thoughts spiral out of control again and I feel like running, but I don't run, not this time. Physically, Russell is no obstacle to me, the fact that he now stands in front of me is not what stops me moving. That he's here at all is what makes me stay; he made the journey all the way from the apartment, in the middle of the night, to find me:

Yes, I pushed him away, as I've pushed him away before (always in a less tangible sense of the word though); and now, as always, he's come back for me. This time is different though, this time his return represents hope: hope that if he's stood by me this long then my history won't matter, and hope that maybe I've finally found the place where I can feel I'm supposed to be.

I look up at him, unsure of what to do next. I should apologise, I should say hello, I should say _something_! Maybe he wants me to explain myself… or does he feel like he needs to explain himself? The suspense is killing me, I'm starting to shake.

If I am drowning in emotion, then Russell is the captain of a lifeboat. Knowing exactly what to do, he takes his hands out of his coat pockets and holds both palms out to me, not only an offering of peace, but an invitation to intimacy as well. I don't want to take his hands though... I want a hug: I want to feel his warmth, and smell his human scent, and show him how much he really means to me. Before either of us can even think the word 'surprise', I have embraced him, holding on as tightly as I can without hurting him. It's now that I let myself go; still shaking, tears flow freely from my eyes, and I can hear myself making sniffs and staccato inhalations and other undignified noises. I don't care though, and it seems (thankfully) that neither does Russell: he allows me to cling to him, and he strokes my back and my hair, like one might do to comfort a little child. We stay like this for the longest time, until I eventually feel ready to let go.

"Thank you. I needed that, so much." I tell him.

"You don't need to thank me. I'll always be here when you need me." He continues, "And I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I didn't mean to force it... I didn't mean to force _you_, into kissing me."

"But you didn't force me, I know you wouldn't do that; it was my fault, I overreacted, I didn't know what else to do."

"Maybe you could've moved your head backwards," he offers, a smile already at the corners of his mouth, "I hear that works for a lot of people." I can't help but smile as well, it's just such a Russell thing to say at a time like this.

There's a brief pause, and then he turns to me, "Celestine?"

"Yes?" I whisper back, almost inaudibly.

"What was on your mind just before you pushed me?" he asks quietly, but very clearly.

…

It's a very good question; _too_ good, even. There are multiple answers, but I can't make myself say any of them: half formed thoughts fail to leave my lips, and so I sit there just looking into his eyes. This is getting annoying: I don't get cold so I don't need to shiver, but if that's the case then why am I doing it? I can't stop myself, it's like I've lost control over both my voice and my body. When it becomes clear that he isn't going to get an answer, that he's wrought havoc with my nerves, he gently takes my hand in his.

"It must feel like seconds to you, the time we've known each other." he says sadly. "When I think about it I feel like I should do up my top button and straighten my tie."

During the whole time I've known Russell I've _never_ seen him wear a tie, and doing up all the buttons on of his shirts is only ever a matter of style. This must be serious…

He's onto something though: while 'seconds' is an exaggeration, two years does feel like an extremely short time to me, but that doesn't make the time we've spent together any less memorable; there's nothing else I would rather have been doing. He brings me out of my thoughts:

"But you know I love you anyway. I just wish you would _let_ me love you."

"I do let you love me."

"I know you _try_ to, I can see it. There's _literally_ the whole world for you to explore, with all the people in it. You could spend as long as you like doing anything you like, and you've chosen to spend some of it with me, but it's like you're trying to keep your distance at the same time: whenever I feel like we're reaching a new high, a deeper understanding, you push me away again. We always stay at the same level."

"I… I do... I do do that."

"But why? What is it? What is it that's keeping you on the run?" I remain silent. He isn't giving up though; I think he can sense that I can't keep this bottled up much longer.

"Please, Celestine. You don't have to keep doing this. I think something awful happened to you a long time ago, and even now it's making you miserable. I can't change the past, but I'd like to be part of your future. I want us both to be happy, together. I know we can be; all you need to do is let me in."

My curiosity gets the better of me and I ask him, "What makes you think that it's my past?" There's a momentary look of shock on his face, then he runs a hand through his hair and replies.

"_You_ make me think it, well, what you say and don't say does. You made it sound like there were a lot of Gems here on Earth once, but you never said what you were doing here in the first place. And when it was time to leave, how come none of them had the same idea as you? It seems strange... And why is the only thing you ever bring out of your gem a weapon? It's _so_ cool, but it's a pretty specialized ability for you all to share. But my main reason is that you're living here with me: you basically can't die, you don't get cold, you don't need food or drink, so the only things I can offer you are love and friendship. If you wanted only my friendship you would have said so before, I know you; which only leaves the idea that you want to accept my love, but something is stopping you."

"Oh."

He's got me, 'Oh' is the only thing I can think of to say. He's listened to me when I've been speaking, and taken good note of the blank spaces. I thought I'd hidden things quite well, but obviously Russell knows me better than I thought. I want him to be a part of my future too, but is he right? Will I finally be happy if I tell him all my secrets? I guess there's only one way to find out…

I squeeze his hand tighter, more to reassure myself than anything else.

I breathe in deep.

I breathe out slowly.

This is the end of our beginning, or the beginning of our end.

I begin to speak.


	3. Product Recovery

…

The first things I notice (and the first things I can remember) are the noises: occasionally there's an abrupt '_BANG_!', followed by the sound of a great mass of something shifting or falling, there's a faint '_vrrr… vrrr… vrrr…_', that's more regular, like something moving around. In the background there's this ever-present rumbling, whirring; it sounds far away, but at the same time it's close, like I can hear it, no… _feel_ it, in the walls around me. I know there are walls all around me except in front, that's where the sounds are coming from, and I can feel a coolness coming from that direction. I want to see what these things are -I want to see where I am, and so for the very first time, I open my eyes.

I'm in a short tunnel. It must be short because I can feel solidness right behind me, and I can see the outside world close in front. I see the sky: it's completely grey, three… somethings are in it, wheeling around each other. 'Are they supposed to be there?' I question. The grey sky meets a wall of rock in a vaguely horizontal line; the rock is also grey, but darker than the sky, with bands of brown thrown in. I notice many dark holes in the rock, randomly spaced and taller than they are wide. Maybe they're also tunnels? I've decided I don't want to be here anymore: I want to go and investigate all the things that aren't where I am, but apart from my eyes I can't move anything, not even an inch.

Whatever goes '_vrrr… vrrr_' is getting closer, the vibrations are getting stronger with each repetition of the noise: 'is it coming to get me out of here?' I wonder. As the sound reaches its peak volume, a dark curve starts to rise from the bottom of the tunnel opening; this is a step backwards, maybe the black curve can't hear me. Before it covers the entrance I notice it has some small circles on it: one in the middle, with the others placed neatly around it; the circles are grey, and they each have a spiral pattern from their centre to the edge.

For a moment I'm in total darkness, until this bright red light appears in front of me, bathing the space in a red glow. Flashing blue quickly replaces solid red, and a thin, unbroken beam shoots forth, elongating itself into a sheet of blue light. From left to right, the sheet passes over me a few times and, once satisfied that I've been sufficiently dazzled, disappears as quickly as it appeared. The lights switch off and the black curve starts to descend again, but its departure is different from its arrival: as it falls I feel myself being pulled forwards, I am going to be leaving the tunnel after all.

I drift to the end of the tunnel and into the world… I still can't move though, so my eyes dance around, taking in more sky, more rock, more holes and a tower with a shiny red thing on top. It looks like there is more to the black curve than I originally thought: it's actually a large circle, and not only does it have thin black legs attached to it (which it uses to carefully walk down the wall), but there's a longer section (also black) extending out of the middle of it, topped with some kind of red box. A clear panel in the long section reveals a suspended, pulsating object whose purpose is as much a mystery to me as everything else that's been happening. My rescuer fills me with questions…

I wait patiently as we move towards the ground, I have little choice. The black-circle-tower-box slows down as it nears the bottom of the wall, delicately placing the bottom of one leg on the ground, then another; after some complex manoeuvring it stands upright, and I have to shift my eyes around to take the whole thing in. I land next to it softly and yet another beam shoots out of it, directed at my right hand palm: I know it's my palm because although it's too low for me to see, I can feel a tingling around there. When the beam starts to flicker I hear noise, but this noise is special - this noise is a lot clearer than the others, and it doesn't have any direction or volume like the normal noises, it's more like a thought. It tells me:

article {x = celestine [SrSO4] ; batch number [612]} _ taskof _ article {y = mineral transmutation plant incubation/product recovery injector-unit [6651980]}

x_follow_y /and/ x_wait (if) y_newtask | until _ newinstruction

The beam recedes and the lights go off, I got the message. I am Celestine and I am to follow unit 6651980 as it does whatever it does. I was going to follow it anyway, so my plan has not been changed. Out of nowhere, black fabric arranges itself around my body and some rubbery container appears around each of my feet; I can no longer feel the bare earth beneath me, and my sense of the atmosphere is diminished. I pull at my new clothes… (Ah, I can move!) The clothes stretch, but nothing else happens.

Now remembering the tingling I felt my in palm, I take advantage of my newfound mobility. Raising my hand in front of my face I see that there's something in it, or on it: an opaque, pale blue rock. It looks like a flattened hemisphere, constructed with short, straight lines instead of being a continuous curve. I tap it a few times with my finger, and when that produces no results I feel around its edges, looking for some way to take it off. It's nice to look at, but I don't see what purpose it serves, and if it was supposed to be there then why doesn't the left hand have one as well? I look around on the floor to see if I dropped my left hand rock, but there's nothing, just normal rocks. When vigourously waving my hand about also does nothing I leave it alone, maybe it will come off by itself.

"_Vrrr… vrrr… vrrr…_" says the unit as its legs rise, rotate and fall. I say nothing back, and this is how we continue our journey along the canyon floor. A few minutes later I almost walk into the unit when it stops to turn left; as it climbs the wall I sit on the ground, watching it stop in front of a certain tunnel and flash its lights inside. Another figure floats down the rocky wall and in the same way as I did it lands on the ground, is targeted by the beam (though I notice this time the beam strikes at a sparkling green rock at the small of its back) and is wrapped in black fabric. Our expanded group starts moving again.

The new figure eyes me with interest and I, it: this one is not a Celestine, where I am pale blue, this one is very green. I prod the new article at the position where I saw the red beam make contact, the rock is still there - I can feel it, even though it's now hidden from view - like mine, the figure's is also not doing anything (apart from just being there).

For a very long time we go about like this: walk, wait as the unit causes another figure to descend, examine it quickly and continue walking. There are quite a few of us, with different body shapes, sizes and colours; while we don't all look the same we do have one common feature, somewhere on our bodies will be a pretty rock, slightly different in colour and completely different in texture to the rest of the body. We explore many twists and turns of the canyon, passing other units (they take no interest in us), some of which appear to be noisily lowering something into the ground. Our unit once again climbs a wall and shines its lights into a tunnel, but this one appears to be giving it some trouble - it does not usually take this long to march back down the wall, with another of us in tow.

We all stare up at our unit, wondering if this delay is the beginning of something new.

It is not.

Without anything extraordinary happening, the unit descends with its newest acquisition. On the ground we observe that this one has its rock on the left side of its chest, a translucent pink triangle with rounded edges; like its rock, its body colour is pink, and its head is topped with numerous brown strands, easily longer than any of ours. The figure is then clothed, and we are lead to a junction between three branches of the canyon.

For the first time since I have seen it, unit 6651980 has stopped without discernible purpose; it waits here, so we all must wait here as well. A yellow flash in front of us grabs my attention, as where there was once solid ground, a large space has appeared. As we look on, a vivid green square the same size as the hole rises, filling it in. On the glowing shape there is a single figure, dressed exactly as we are, but as it walks closer I notice one minor difference: at the centre of its chest are two small yellow shapes, diamonds. It strides right past us and we turn our heads to get a better look as it passes; it moves up to our unit and pulls a zip on one of its black sleeves, exposing a deep blue strip of rock. Our unit directs its red beam to the blue rock, and for a few moments the two are connected. Having received the necessary information from (or perhaps it gave information to) our unit, the figure speaks.

"Article z, Blue Spinel, addressing batch 612." All eyes are now on the figure now known as 'Blue Spinel'.

"Instruction all, of unit number 6651980, overridden by Blue Spinel. Proceed to marked area."

Without question we move and stand on the green square as instructed. When everyone is on board it descends, the sounds and sights of the outside world quickly fade, and then are gone entirely, leaving us in green tinted silence.

…

There is a lot less to see during the journey downwards, and I'm reminded of the tunnel. At least this time I can move… I look at my fellow travellers: some look straight ahead, others look upwards through the shaft, one or two are still trying to dislodge the rocks that have stuck to us, and one of them looks back at me. Blue Spinel makes some contortion of the mouth when it sees me looking at them; none of the others have done anything like that, and I attempt to replicate the gesture in an attempt to understand it. Blue Spinel's response is a series of short noises; I don't know what this signifies so I go back to looking around.

The square comes to a stop and in front of us is a passageway, which Blue Spinel leads us down, into a brightly lit space. There are many figures here, sitting in front of glowing green rectangles or tending to complex looking boxes of all sizes. All of them look up as we walk through the space, and a few even make that same facial contortion I saw Blue make earlier. We stop at the very back of the space, where a lone form stands with its arms folded; the new figure and Blue Spinel speak to each other… I do not understand a word of it except 'batch'. When the conversation is over, Blue Spinel pulls some kind of opaque covering across the wall, separating our group from the figures occupying the rest of the space. Then the one that isn't Blue Spinel takes a… a something off of a nearby surface: after looking at it briefly, the figure looks up and calls for me.

"Batch 612, article Celestine, step forward."

I step forward and the figure sits me on a nearby platform, grabs my right wrist and turns my hand so my palm can be seen. The figure lightly runs its fingers over my rock, and then holds the something over it. For a split second I feel that tingling again, but tingling is irrelevant when compared to the forced expansion of one's mind.

Everything I have seen so far is given a name: my shiny-palm-rock is a gem, the objects I saw in the sky were birds, the coverings on my feet are boots; lights, drills, hair, screens, can all now be considered separate, they are made specific -as opposed to just being a collection of things that aren't each other. To compensate for lack of knowledge, new and unseen objects are introduced to me, with their names also added to my ever-growing vocabulary. What I have seen is only a tiny fraction of something called a planet, and this planet is but a tiny fraction of a universe.

While it is important for me to know what the things around me are, it is equally important to know how they interact with each other. To that end, thousands of relationships and ideas are fed directly into my mind every second: objects and concepts associate with each other a million times over, and my mind annotates its simple model of the world. This network of links allows the properties of each thing to be compared to the properties of any other; it is when I begin to make these comparisons that whatever unseen force is enlightening me, bestows upon me words for description and more detailed specification, growing away from mere definition.

General knowledge assimilated, I am now taught words used for communication with others of my species: there would be little point in formulating plans or trying to reify my desires if I lacked the words to express myself to those who might help me. This is how the fine tuning of my developing mind begins. It ends when the computer makes its final checks, stores its upload report and then ceases pulsing the laser at my gem. The thought-noise stops.

It is a day of firsts and for the first time, I think of myself as a person.

"Respond if you can understand me." says the nameless Gem with the handheld computer.

I know that she is a Gem, and that I am a Gem too: here, we are all Gems and that makes me very happy. What makes me even happier is that I now have names to describe my feelings, those things that I feel inside, like happiness.

Her facial expression and the way she sounds suggest boredom… she looks bored. Suddenly, the most interesting thing in the world, the greatest mystery that could ever be solved is why she looks bored. My first spoken words will enable me to solve this mystery.

"Why do you look bored?" I ask her excitedly. She sighs, but doesn't answer; choosing instead to tap something into her computer. 'Maybe she cannot hear me.' I propose to myself. I ask her again, louder this time, "Why do you look bored?"

"I heard you the first time, you don't need to shout!" she snaps at me. "If I look bored it's because I've had to stop what I'm doing to run diagnostics and start-up on annoying little brats like you. Do they think that I just sit around all day, waiting to be given mundane tasks to do?"

"I do not know, do they think that?" I ask, eager to continue our conversation.

"Aaaaaaaahhhh! I hate infants!" she groans angrily, "You can go now, please stand somewhere else… away from me." We both turn to Blue Spinel, who I think is trying not to laugh. The nameless Gem is not pleased.

"Celestine, I think you should come and stand over here with me. Calcite is getting upset."

I look at Calcite, who frowns and folds her arms; I get the feeling she doesn't like me, but I can't resist the urge to smile a huge smile at her, "Thank you for doing this for me." I say to her, before moving to join Blue Spinel.

I chatter to her incessantly about all that I've seen since waking up; as I do, Calcite steadily works through the other Gems, a few of whom come to talk with us. Everyone is in high spirits expect Calcite (who I know hates infants) and Blue Spinel, who's subdued manner surprises me because what she says suggests that she's happy. Just as it occurs to me that there is a lot more to this situation than I know, Calcite finishes with the last of us.

"Blue, I'm done with this lot; you can take them away. _Don't_ bring me any more."

"You know that isn't up to me, Calcite. I know you don't like them, but they won't always be like this. You should try talking to them, it helps them."

"I need to get back to my work, so if there's nothing else I need to do then I'll see you around. And keep an eye on Morganite, this last one," Calcite gestures to the pink one with the triangular gem that I saw before: she hops off the platform and saunters back to us with a triumphant smirk on her face, "she's already showing a lot of autonomy."

The thirteen of us that make up the rest of batch 612 all turn to look at Morganite, who seems pleased at the attention.

"Calcite just examined my gem, do the rest of you want to see it as well?" she asks the group as a whole. I speak when nobody else does.

"No thank you, I have already seen it. I am pleased to meet you, Morganite." She seems irritated by my answer and glares at me for a few seconds, looking me up and down.

"Who are you?"

"I am Celestine."

"Are you in authority here?"

Blue Spinel answers before I can open my mouth, "No, she isn't. I am." Morganite disregards me and directs her questions to Blue Spinel.

"I am bored. Can we go somewhere else now?"

"Calcite might be bored as well." I state helpfully.

"Be quiet, Celestine. I am not speaking to you." Morganite quickly tells me.

"Hey! Don't talk to her like that, you're not the only one that's allowed to speak," Blue Spinel chastises, "but yes, we're finished here so we _are_ leaving."

The screen is drawn and we follow our leader out of the large room, through the corridor, onto the green platform again. Fewer than before, people stop what they're doing to look at us as we walk through. When everyone is on the green square it restarts its silent journey, taking us down into the next stage of our lives.


	4. History Lesson

Maybe I should be satisfied for a while, having learned so much so fast. But I'm not! Whatever Calcite just did to me has started some kind of chain reaction; I want to know more about everything, now that I have a stable base to start exploring from.

"Blue Spinel, where are we going?"

"You can call me Blue, I don't think anyone really cares for the formality down here, except the Boss. She's who you're going to see."

"Okay."

"Yeah, you'll be fine, just don't annoy her. She's understanding when it comes to new Gems, as long as you're not rude."

At some point we changed direction because now our green platform is moving in an upwards diagonal, slowing to halt in front of a secure looking metal door. Blue unzips her sleeve again and holds her gem in front of a console at the side of the door. Then, a rich, slow voice speaks from the console:

"Commander Spinel, not a moment too soon. You can send them in now."

The door parts in the middle, revealing another corridor, "Go on Celestine, she's just through there, the second door will open by itself." Blue encourages. I step through the first door and the others follow my lead.

This corridor has black walls - not rock, but a uniform coating of dull metal - and is lit from below: the floor is a single rectangle of glowing white. Long display cases form the walls of the corridor, with the glass extending from about waist height to the ceiling. There's a huge selection of models and artefacts in each case: swords, sets of armour, miniature versions of machines and buildings, detailed diagrams and broken gems, either loose with the pieces neatly arranged, or set within shining metal ornaments. I would love to stay and examine it all but the black, metal door slides upwards, granting us entry into a practically furnished but luxurious office.

The office has four walls and a ceiling, made from the same sort of rock as we've seen elsewhere in the complex. Three of the four walls have been carefully flattened and smoothed, and maps, graphs and a board of blinking lights adorn them. The very back wall of the office is actually a window built into the rock; from our position we can see it looks down into an enormous cavern, but we're too far away to see what's at the bottom. In front of the window are a small table and an uncomfortable looking sofa, but the main feature of the room is an expansive black desk: it looks like it's made from a shiny metal, but the way the intricate artwork on the side flows and twists, suggests it might be organic, and tiny gems are geometrically studded all around the artwork. If the desk is impressive the Gem that occupies it is even more so, and as we enter the room she stands up and makes her way towards us, causing the projected green screen and keyboard in front of her to vanish. Her head is almost completely shaved except for a light covering of deep red bristles, and her skin is a dark, very shiny grey that reflects the light, making her look like a mirror at some angles; she's extremely tall and thinner than a lot of the Gems that I've seen around. She wears a modified version of the black jumpsuits that everyone else has, wearing a sturdy looking vest covered in straps and pockets on her torso, with three little yellow diamonds prominently displayed on the breast.

There are fourteen chairs neatly lined up in front of the desk, and she invites us to sit as she perches herself on the edge of her desk.

"Please, all of you take a seat."

I move over to the furthest chair on the right and take my place. When we're all seated she starts speaking.

"Welcome. I am Lieutenant General Hematite; you will call me either Lieutenant General or Director. I am in charge of this facility, and anyone you answer to ultimately answers to me. Calcite's sent me the summaries of your recovery reports: I'm pleased to say that everything went as planned. How do you feel?"

We verbally express our positive feelings at the same time, resulting in a cheerful (and incoherent) chattering.

"Good. I see you're all very excited, naturally you must be full of questions, which is part of why you've been brought to me. I'm going to speak to you for a while, and hopefully that'll answer a lot of them, okay?"

We nod.

"So, I know you know your names, your batch number, some general knowledge and things like that; but what do you know about this place?"

"It is under a canyon."

"It is underground."

"It is on Earth."

"There are Gems here."

Are some of the answers that we offer.

"Yes, all of those are technically correct... I think we'll start from here." Hematite declares.

We listen intently to our first lesson.

"Though there are Gems on this planet, this is not where we come from; our world of origin, simply but accurately named 'Homeworld', is a very long way away. We travelled here because we wish to expand as a race, but at the moment there aren't enough Gems in existence to cope with the scale of some of our operations. You see, there are three problems we have in that regard: the first, is that we only form naturally on a single planet, Homeworld; the second is that we inherently take a long time to grow from what starts as normal rock: at every stage of development the position, the pressure, the temperature… _everything_ needs to be perfect, otherwise you are left with a precious stone instead of a sapient being. The _third_ is that even when a new Gem has been formed, it might take them years to find their way to the surface, and then to a community: we don't know exactly when or where new Gems will appear, so we don't know where to look. There have been many attempts to draw up correlations that describe which Gem varieties are forming, where they are doing so and how those Gems might get to the surface… but they only work for very specific conditions, so it's essentially still random.

Which is why we've built places like this, mineral transmutation plants, or 'kindergartens' as they've nicknamed them. The main purpose of this site is to create new Gems, like yourselves, in a fraction of time than it would take to find the same amount of Gems back home."

A short pause in the story is all the opportunity we need. At once, every single one of us is clamouring to get our questions heard. The noise must be so irritating, but for her part, Hematite just waits patiently for us to realise that our noise won't get us anywhere, and we calm down and go quiet eventually.

"This isn't going to work if you all speak at once. You have to wait until I'm finished, _then _I'll answer any questions," she says sternly. When she has total silence, she carries on. "We could easily maintain these plants on Homeworld, but the same process used to give you life is irreversible. It's a fast, effective way to create new Gems of the type you need -that's undeniable... But it's only a short term solution: we could make full use of every deposit on our world, but naturally formed Gems... they're a part of Homeworld itself, and they often have abilities that are difficult to replicate through transmutation. Homeworld is our most valuable resource, and it is absolutely not to be tampered with...

People embraced the multiplication of our race, but when they realised that it would fundamentally alter our world the plants were shut down. **_Very_** quickly. But there was so much invested in the project's success, it had so much potential; and so the decision was made to take production offworld. There are several planets with suitable composition and structure located a reasonable distance from Homeworld, and plants have, or will be, set up on those planets. But Earth, whilst being a bit further away than may seem logical at this point, has the advantage of being perfect for growing new Gems, and from the moment it was discovered we knew that we were going to come here. Originally it was thought to harbour only microscopic life forms, but the first expedition to this planet revealed much more: there are many different types of organisms here, all organic, none of any real interest except two: humans, and viruses."

…

I shift myself forward ever so slightly and will Hematite to speak a bit louder. We look so much like the humans - no, that doesn't sound right: it seems as though Gems are a lot older than humans, so _they_ must look like _us_ \- but we are different in so many ways… I hope she tells us more about them.

"From a plant-building point of view that doesn't matter, the humans are the only sapient species here and they're barely even that: compared to us they're extremely primitive, mostly concerned with farming, basic mining and some metal-alloy production. But they are _very_ fast learners, and it is part of their nature to reproduce, which is something they do very quickly. As a race they're no threat to us at the moment, but given a few thousand years they will be -even sooner if any of our technology falls into their hands. They're more than willing to destroy each other out of fear, and for resources, so imagine what they would do to us if they had the opportunity… We must not give them that opportunity. I said the main purpose of this place is to create new Gems, but one of its secondary purposes is as a countermeasure: we will take what we need from this planet, and deal with the humans in the process; before they have the chance to attempt the same thing on us."

I look around at the other Gems worriedly, trying to gauge their reactions to this unnerving news. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. I thought that maybe because we look similar then we would be similarly civilized, but maybe that isn't always true...

"This brings us nicely back to why we're here… why _you're_ here. Despite what we've learned about humans there are still Gems who believe it's wrong to build our plants on this planet: there is one rose quartz in particular that's of major concern to my superiors... Worryingly, her ideas are gaining traction, and there's a strong possibility that offensive action will be taken against us for our work here. Your batch is the first of a small few that Yellow Diamond has asked me to train specially, in order to combat the more dangerous and complex threats that the Gem race faces."

Now I'm afraid. We're going to be fighting Gems, maybe even other races? But how? We were only recovered a few hours ago! What if we die? What if we fail? I don't know why, but I suddenly have the urge to take the hand of the Gem sitting next to me; she doesn't say anything about it when I do, she doesn't even look at me, she just grasps the hand of the Gem next to her. In seconds we're all sitting in a line, holding hands, looking as anxious as we feel.

"There's no need to look so upset about it," Hematite tells us confidently, "this is a glorious day for you all! Did you think that we were going to send you out right now, without any weapons, or skills, or information? Of course not! You're going to live here, and over the next few years you'll get to know each other, about more of this world, about Homeworld, and how to deal with any adversary you may have to face. By the time you leave here you'll be more than ready for anything… You'll be itching to get started."

I doubt that last part, but I feel a lot better… for now. And Hematite is right: it _is_ quite an honour to be charged with the safety of our race (even if we have just been recovered). Our chain of linked hands is broken by a cream coloured Gem with white hair: she thrusts her arm in the air to catch Hematite's attention.

"Yes?"

"Who is Yellow Diamond?"

"Yellow Diamond is one of the leaders of our people, and she's in charge of the largest section of the military, and of practically all transmutation projects. In the same way that you take orders from Commander Spinel, I take orders from one of Yellow Diamond's Generals, and the Generals take orders directly from Yellow Diamond."

Another Gem raises her hand for a question, and is acknowledged by Hematite.

"Will we ever go to Homeworld?"

"Almost certainly. Whether it's because your mission takes you there or because you have time to visit."

"How many Gems have been created in kindergartens?" a random voice shouts out.

"Hmmm," Hematite pauses, "roughly two thousand, seven or eight hundred. With plans for many thousands more."

When the room goes quiet again Morganite raises her hand. She begins speaking before Hematite addresses her.

"What if I do not wish to be a tool for Yellow Diamond: a person I have never even met before?"

…

Morganite is fascinating, it's like she's one step ahead of the rest of us! When Calcite had finished with us all, she was the one that asked if we could go somewhere else; now she's brought up a question that never even occurred to me. I wonder if any of the others were thinking it? There's something different about her.

I'm going to find out what it is…

…

Hematite narrows her eyes and walks to where Morganite is seated. They leer at each other for what feels like minutes, until Morganite smiles wickedly. As though something unspoken has been decided, Hematite's face relaxes.

"Morganite."

"That is my name."

"You would do well to bring less attention to yourself." says Hematite in a soft, sinister voice. "As to your question; you should consider yourself incredibly fortunate that someone as important as Yellow Diamond has such grand designs in mind for you. If being a 'tool', as you put it, is an issue for you then try not to think about it too much; defying her wishes _never_ ends well. Understand?"

"I understand." she says in a most belligerent way.

"Excellent. Now if there are no more questions then you may return to Commander Spinel, who'll lead you to your next destination. And remember: I'm expecting great things from you. All of you…" her eyes flick towards Morganite, as if in warning.

We exit the room. I can tell from the sudden air of relaxation that the others are as glad to be out of there as I am. I look towards Morganite, who doesn't even notice. She's too busy scowling.

Hematite has given us a lot to think about. I'm still a little worried about the future, and the humans, and that rose quartz that she mentioned; but if Yellow Diamond and Hematite believe in us, then I guess I should as well.

* * *

As the last of batch 612 leaves, Lieutenant General Hematite allows herself a momentary smirk (something she tries not to bother with too often). She has high hopes for this batch, and the rest of the project, and the inevitable war...

Things are starting to come together.


	5. The Construct

I make sure to cover Moss Agate's mouth as I stab her in the back; I don't want to end up like her, a victim of my own success. A few months ago the same thing happened to me, and it was _excruciating_: I'd never been so happy to return to my gem in all my life. But I learned my lesson, 'always watch your back', like they're constantly telling us. Moss isn't going to be happy with me when she regenerates... but she'll get over it.

I know she'd do the same thing if she were in my position.

Her muffled shrieks die down and I gently lower the struggling Gem to the ground, before she disappears in a puff of glittering smoke. I've tried to keep my actions as quiet as possible, but this is _us_, you never can be too careful, and so I work hastily to be gone before anyone can locate me. We were all given two things at the start of the exercise: a thin, long-bladed knife and a metal canister with a strap, to carry any gems that we collect on the way. I unsling my canister, unscrew the lid and drop Moss's gem (which I have sealed in a little pale-blue bubble, as instructed) inside. Adding her gem to my collection gives me five, and adding her collection to mine gives me eight, so at most I have five of the others to neutralize; it's a manageable number, but I've still got to keep my guard up. I resecure my canister and take the right turn that Moss was going to take.

…

We were warped into this puzzle about three hours ago; I call it a puzzle because calling it a maze would be too simplistic. As I understand it there are actually four individual mazes: some have traps and others have machines and monsters patrolling them. I've drawn up a crude holographic map of the place from memory, but I can't remember the entire thing and at irregular intervals everything shifts: sometimes I hear noises above or below me, and I know it's no longer a single level, at other times parts that I think I've explored before lead to totally different areas, so the pieces must rotate around each other as well. I've had to contend with all that, _and_ thirteen of the most uncompromising people I know are trying to return me to my gem.

So what are we in here for? What's the purpose of this exercise? Well, despite what they told us it probably isn't just to retrieve a metal cube from somewhere in the maze… Like everything else we have to do, this is preparation. I've learned that Hematite doesn't exaggerate, and when she said we were going to learn how to deal with our adversaries, she meant it. Almost every day for the last twelve years we've been learning how to do what we were grown for; the service of our race will require us to fight in many ways - both mental and physical - and fight we do: we fight our instructors and we fight each other, we fight with anything, in every style, bare hands, short swords, polearms, you name it; we fight in all situations, in confined spaces and in near darkness, learning from our opponents with every movement. Now we're sneaking around this maze, using the environment itself to disappear and reappear at a moment's notice; we decoy and plan, and strike with timing and purpose, putting into practice all our skills.

…

Holding onto the edge of the hole, I peer down into first level of the currently stacked mazes. I'm almost certain that the cube is on this level, it's the one that I've explored the fewest times. Since I first guessed that the mazes stack themselves I have been keeping an eye open for any way to move vertically between them: they tell us not to leave anything to chance, but I've been in here too long not to look for shortcuts between the sections, and my time searching has not been wasted. Seeing no threats in the space below, I drop down into level one.

The colour green is starting to get really tiresome; that same monochrome glow, **everywhere**, is starting to affect my concentration. I'm beginning to wonder if the world will look right when I finally get out of here… My frustration refuels my desire to be out of here, and I make my way through any path that feels wholly unfamiliar. I begin to have serious doubts about the accuracy of my map when a path I'm expecting to continue down turns out to be a dead end: the left turn is still there, but I don't want to turn left, I want to go forwards! I can't be incorrect, why would everything else about this part of the level match up, for this one path to be out of place? An embarrassingly long time later it dawns on me that things don't look the same because they aren't the same: the last time I was here, this level must have lead seamlessly into another, which is not the case now that the levels are stacked. I don't want to go forwards, I need to go left.

After some more dead ends and steps back, I turn into a long passageway.

And then I see it.

A statue of Yellow Diamond stands on a stone pedestal at the far end of the passageway, held in front of her chest is the metal cube that I've been hunting all this time. Keeping a close eye on my surroundings I walk up to the imposing statue; I've only ever seen stylized images of Yellow Diamond, but this effigy can't be life sized: I mean, it's taller than me, but it's far too short to fit the descriptions that I've heard of her. Not seeing any other way to get the cube, I hold onto the statue and climb onto the pedestal: now precariously balanced in front of it, I gently prise the cube out of its clasped hands.

My victory is short lived -just fractions of a second, because as soon as its hands are free the statue's eye's flick open, and its arms shoot back in order to execute its strike. I glimpse that this representation is decorated with a real gemstone, which then strikes me as odd because Yellow Diamond is always pictured with a quadrilateral in the centre of her chest, _not_ the off-centre, trilliant cut stone that I'm currently seeing. With explosive force it thrusts its palms towards me, one aimed at my face and the other at my chest. Overcome by intense indignation, I sail back through the passageway. That's unfair! She can't do that… can she? She can do that, and she has. As I skate to a stop I wonder:

"How did I not I see that coming?"

…

I'm dazed, and I gaze up at the ceiling into the green light, reflecting on how I've been utterly outsmarted. Had it been white light I would have noticed her immediately, but it isn't white light and now my rival looms into view, smiling at me conceitedly.

"Aww, poor Cel. Did I take you by surprise? How did you like my little trick?"

I hate it when she calls me Cel. My humiliation now complete, I groan miserably, in preparation for the breathtaking derision I'm surely about to receive.

"Don't be like that, Cel," she says in a mock serious tone, "better to be beaten here than out where it actually matters." The instructors aren't going to like that one bit, - though they don't tend to like anything Morganite has to say, so that's not unusual - but she does have a point; I've learned from this, which is good, but did it have to be _her_?

"Anyway, you took your time getting here: I was beginning to regret waiting for you, but you haven't disappointed me. I knew you wouldn't… But now that you _are_ here I want to tell you a secret." She leans in close… way too close, with her hands either side of my head and her face a short distance from mine: "Your gem is the only one that I wa..."

Seizing what may be my only opportunity to come out of this victorious, I headbutt her as hard as I can, hitting her squarely in the nose with my forehead.

"Ahhh!"

She goes back to a standing position as I move to do the same; either my attack wasn't as painful as I'd hoped it would be, or I underestimated her recovery speed, because I lift myself barely a foot off the ground before she stamps painfully on my chest, driving me back to the cold stone. She isn't going to make the same mistake twice; this game is just about over.

"_That_, was sly." she says, still smirking. This time she keeps me pinned to the floor with her boot, "That's why I admire you, Celestine. You're focused. You point us in the right direction."

This is really not a good time for flattery, but I'm surprised (and pleased, in a way) to hear her say she admires me. I didn't get the impression that she thought much of anyone... except herself.

"You're right though, there's a job to complete."

With that she removes her foot from my chest and slips off her canister: she lifts it high, and brings it down on my head as hard as she can.

* * *

I find myself in one of many Gem sized indentations in the rock. I turn my head to the right to see how high up I am and a random technician gives me a quick wave, before turning to another.

"I win."

"How do you even do that?"

"I just do, it's a gift."

"You could get a nice promotion if you put that gift to good use you know."

"Nah, that's too way much effort; my current setup is fine."

"Suit yourself."

I jump down from my shelf and walk towards the first technician.

"Hi, I need your identification number please." she says cheerfully.

"0612-01."

She fiddles with the computer for a few seconds.

"Oh, you're one of Blue Spinel's kids," she says with interest, "you're the last one, actually. I'll tell her you're on your way... You're on grid nine, do you know how to get there?"

"I do, thank you." I have a strong suspicion that grid nine is (unofficially) our designated grid, and that we'll do everything there until our training is over.

"Okay... Good luck." I wonder what she's wishing me good luck in until I recognise that sad sort of look in her eyes: this isn't the first time that someone has wished me good luck after finding out my batch number. I understand her unspoken meaning.

"Thank you."

Waiting for people to regenerate all day must be pretty boring, but that's probably why they rotate the staff. I leave the pair to their game and make my way to grid nine. It doesn't take me long, I've been there so many times it's become my home within my home.

The tall, narrow doors slide open when I stand in front of them, closing softly as I step into the room. As the technician said, I'm the last one, and everyone else is already here killing time. I always feel incredible just after a regeneration, and seeing the welcoming smiles of my cadre makes it even better. They stop what they're doing and jog up to me, most of them with the same mischievous, toothy grin on their faces. After all the greetings and 'welcome back's, the conversation turns to the maze:

"…Well I killed Nephrite before you killed me; so _really_ you only got one kill. Don't claim for my work…"

"…ran straight into her, but you were going the other way so we decided to get you first, but we got separated and then I was in the storeroom, so it must've been you…"

"…the one with the gate: I almost fell for that, but I decided to just 'shift and climbed up the side…"

"… laughed so much at the look on your face, Celestine! Did you see the picture yet?"

"No, I just got here." I don't have to worry about being left out of the fun though, because suddenly I'm shoved in front of a screen with a video on it. It's a slowed down capture of me attempting to collect that cube, and I'm able to see with painful clarity why everyone is so amused: anyone would laugh at the sight of my face deforming temporarily, and my eyes widening in horrified shock. It isn't pretty. When everyone is finished laughing I ask Morganite about the outcome of the exercise.

"So was there anyone left after you took me out?"

"No," she says proudly, "you were the last one. As soon as I counted the gems that you'd already taken, I looked for a warp pad. They took all of your gems off me and told me to 'occupy myself' until you guys regenerated… So how much did it hurt when I hit you in the face?" I knew she wouldn't be able to resist asking me that.

"The first or the second time?"

"The second."

"It was actually quite painless compared to how I've been knocked out before. I only felt it for a moment and then I woke up in the storeroom."

"Good, that's what I wanted."

The arrival of Blue brings an end to our conversation, and we gather around her in the same way the others did to me. I'm still wondering why Morganite would care about how painful it was: she seems to take a certain pleasure in letting people know when she's beaten them, especially me. The thought is sent to the back of my mind when she speaks to us.

"Listen up, Gems, I've just been having a meeting with the Boss; I'm sure she'll tell you herself when she comes down a little later, but she's really impressed with all of you, and so am I. Now that you're all back," she nods to me, "I want to quickly give you some general feedback about the assessment, just to finish everything off. Celestine and Barite, the others have had their individual feedback already but you hadn't regenerated yet, so I'll give you yours later.

So, the first thing to note is that you all made at least some attempt to map out the construct. We didn't expect you to be able to make a detailed plan of the whole thing, but we wanted to see that you were trying to gain even the simplest advantage, which you all managed with varying degrees of sucess. One of the most pleasing things we saw was Celestine waiting for the right time to move between specific tiers: the rest of you actively navigated the pieces as you came across them, which is good, but Celestine turned what was meant to be a hindrance into a benefit. That's exactly the kind of thinking we want to become natural to all of you.

The second thing we wanted to observe was your ability to think clearly under demanding circumstances: the inherent uncertainty of walking around a maze full of threats, having to repeatedly check and recheck your surroundings, even the lighting was designed to make you feel tense. None of you tried to leave the construct though, and for the most part you remained vigilant; but there's still a need for improvement in that respect.

There isn't much to say about the obstacles. None of you fell for any of the traps, and you evaded most of the monsters: you identified the ones that you couldn't fight on your own, armed with only a knife. Your combat skills were excellent too, but this wasn't just about combat; we knew you could do that already.

What was a bit of a surprise is how readily you've taken to shapeshifting: every single one of you did it at some point. As a group, it'll be something you do often, so I'm happy that you find it so easy. But I can't talk about shapeshifting without giving Morganite a special mention. While she didn't make the most 'kills', she applied everything we've taught you with creativity and exercised an incredible amount of patience in waiting for potential targets, something you _know_ must've been difficult for her."

We all smile knowingly. I glance at Morganite, who's already looking at me, smiling broadly. She's so annoying… But she _is_ a deserving winner, and a member of the batch… at the end of the day her victory is our victory too.

"Being able to act out of character when the situation demands it is a valuable thing; I want you to take that away from this assessment in addition to anything in your personal feedback."

The group nods silently, waiting to see what else Blue has to say.

"Alright, now because you've done so well we're moving the next stage of your training forward. Consider it something of a reward. Everything we've been teaching you up until now has been common to you all, you've been doing exactly the same thing, but the last two areas of your education are going to be more... personal."


	6. Combinations

"I know that you're all acquainted with fusion - some to a greater degree than others - but I'm going to trust you and assume it's been a long time since any of you has even attempted it, so we'll start from the basics anyway."

Yes, there was that one time soon after we discovered that we could fuse, and some of us (naming no names) decided to find test the limits of our newly discovered ability… In the end, all fourteen of us were given strict instruction not to dance with each other under **any** circumstances, until told otherwise.

"Do you remember how to dance?"

We do.

"Show me." Blue challenges.

It was Morganite that first 'taught' us to dance (not that she was in any way qualified to do so), and so it's no surprise that she's the first to move into some space, already revolving her hips and winding her arms around in that way she loves to do. When she's set the tone the others gradually join in, aimlessly following whatever instructions their body is giving them.

I don't like dancing, not even when I'm by myself… it makes me feel ungainly. Since our recovery all of our movements have had purpose: a strike to the forearm to block an attack, a sweep of the leg to trip the enemy, even walking is _for_ something. Dancing on the other hand, there's no instruction, no purpose; there isn't any way to know if I'm doing well, or doing the right thing. When I dance I feel like I'm flittering around simply because I can, and that makes me feel silly, so I don't do it. That's why I'm so annoyed that it's got something to do with being able to fuse, and that we're being asked to give a demonstration of our skills right now.

"And you three?" Blue asks about Snow Quartz, Barite and I.

"But there's no music. We… I… usually we dance when they're playing music." Snow replies uncertainly. Barite nods in confident agreement, as though that explanation is going to convince Blue.

"Celestine?"

"I don't like dancing…"

By now, the others have noticed Blue talking to us and stop their dancing to come and listen. Blue has known us since our recovery, so it's no surprise that she knows precisely when to punish us for our insubordination, and when to use it to deepen our understanding of something. Thankfully she opts for the latter this time.

"Do any of you know why you need to dance if you want to fuse?"

I don't think any of us have ever thought about that before, there's been no need to: we learned how to fuse before we knew it was even possible, and so the details of why it works have never mattered. Our silence tells Blue all she needs to know.

"For fusion, both the minds and bodies of everyone involved have to be in harmony with each other. We dance because it's a signal to the body, expressing the minds overall desire to be one with another person, or people, for whatever reason. In your cases that reason will be - or should be, at least - to take advantage of whatever enhanced abilities you gain from fusing."

Now she focuses on Snow, "so can you see why the music doesn't really matter?"

"Yes."

"Good. And you should also be able to see why _how_ you dance doesn't matter either. But observing you all has given me an idea." From the way she beams at us this is going to be one of her greats… "Getting you to dance by yourselves was kind of pointless: some of you seem a little hesitant, and some of you are clearly more than comfortable with everything. What I'm going to do is put you guys in pairs: the more confident dancers with the less confident ones, and then give you some time to rediscover fusion for yourselves. I'm hoping that smaller groups will make it easier for the ones that haven't fused before, and make it easier for me to manage your fusions while you're still learning. We're going-"

"What do you mean 'easier for you to manage'?" someone interrupts.

"Well, when you fuse you're no longer just yourself, and you're not just part of a whole either, you're a fusion Gem. A fusion's size and how they behave depends on what the people that form them are like: some combinations of personality traits form very self-centred, _very_ aggressive, totally overpowering fusions. Do you remember how much damage you caused when you formed that four person fusion? _That_ was an example of difficult to manage...

As I was saying, we're going to be in here for now, so I'm going to choose pairs that I think will form fusions that can actually fit on the grid. When I'm satisfied with your progress then we'll head to the surface to see what other pairings will make. Can I have those of you who've fused before on the left and those of you that haven't on the right."

So we shift positions and end up with a five-nine split in front of Blue. I'm part of the five that have never fused before.

"Now then, I want Celest-"

To my right I sense something move: the interruption is none other than Morganite, waving her hand in the air. I was about to find out who my partner is, what does she want now?

"Yes, Morganite?" Blue asks warily.

"I know you said that _you_ were going to pair us, but I have a request."

"Request away."

"I would like to be paired with Celestine, if it isn't a problem."

Did she just say what I think she said?

…

Blue Spinel is surprised; not because of the nature of Morganite's request, but because it's taken so long. She's been alive long enough to know an infatuation when she sees one, and Morganite's is as intense as they come. The young Gem might think she's kept it quiet enough (which she has… from her batchmates, even Celestine herself appears to be completely clueless about Morganite's feelings towards her), but she wouldn't be a very good mentor if she didn't notice these things. The Boss would not be pleased, not even a little bit, if she knew that any of her 'special batch' were thinking about each other like this, but it was decided that they would be most effective if left with as much room for free thought as possible, and if falling in love is a by-product then their lives will be all the richer for it. The Boss is just going to have to accept this one.

When she finds out…

Eventually…

As it happens she was going to pair the two anyway: Morganite's strong will and free spiritedness hint at very powerful but unpredictable fusions, and she feels that Celestine would be the perfect match to calm things down, keeping the fusion focused on the mission objective. The fact that Morganite wants to be paired with Celestine just makes it easier.

At the core of everything she'd like to see their relationship grow: she knows these Gems are going to experience some terrible things, and if she can do anything to bring them happiness while they're still in her care, then she'll do it gladly.

…

"No, I have no problem with that, unless Celestine has any objections?"

I don't have any objections, but this is so strange. Maybe it's because it's always us two who are left to fight for first place, or because she loves to draw attention to herself, or because she always, always, has to be different, but I don't like Morganite as much as the others. I do like her though; she's a part of our group and even if she can be quite selfish (and coarse, and rude, and…), I know that she'll never put herself ahead of any of us when it really matters.

A while ago the only times she seemed to genuinely enjoy my company, were when she'd just beaten me at something -or when there was something (no matter how trivial) for us to disagree about. When she'd be showing off it always got that bit louder or more intense when I was around, like she was trying to show me that she's better than me.

These days she still likes to argue with me but she's turned down her gloating; I tend to receive these smug smiles instead. She also makes much more of an effort to talk to me, which makes everything less awkward when we're brought together for something… but most recently her actions have made no sense to me: I find that she gets closer to me, physically, than she needs to sometimes (though I don't mind that as much as I think I should), sometimes she watches me with no clear reason, and when I catch her doing it she just smiles at me. Now there's this, and what she said about the maze: why would she be concerned about sending me back to my gem in a painless way?

All of which is why I don't understand why she wants to be partnered with me now. Is this some kind of trick, is she trying to distract me so she can beat me at something else? In terms of fusion I have a lot to gain from her, but there's nothing she can gain from me… I've never even fused before, and she was one persuading everyone else to do it last time. Maybe she's noticed that I like her less than the others, but then, she doesn't have to try this hard to change that. I'd like to be a friend of hers, but she makes it difficult for me to feel like I am a lot of the time.

I don't know why she's doing this, and I'm not entirely sure why I'm going to along with it so easily, but I am. Anyway, Blue doesn't seem to have any worries, so it'll probably be fine.

"No, I have no objections."

"Great, then you two can come and stand next to me, so I can see who still needs pairing."

We move out of our groups and stand next to Blue, who continues to match people. Everyone seems to have understood why they've been paired in such a way because there are no attempts to change partners. In no time there are 7 pairs and Blue gives us our next instructions.

"I want you to dance with each other. Dance however you like, just do what comes to you naturally. Move your body without focusing on it: who's looking at you, how you look, what you think about your own dance isn't important. When you feel at ease dancing with your partner, try to focus on your minds: you're trying to fuse, so the simplest idea you can share is 'I want to be fused to my partner', keep that in mind and fusion should be easy.

But I want you guys to create stable fusions. For that, it isn't enough to just want to be fused, you have to experience the same emotion or really _feel_ the same purpose. So, all of you find your own space and do what you can, I'll come round to check on you every so often, but if you have any questions then just come and ask me."

Looking more at the five of us that have yet to fuse she adds, "Oh, and you'll know if you're synchronizing because your gems will start to glow: when the light is at its brightest you have to make physical contact, that's what allows the fusion to form."

…

I could watch Morganite dance all day. She's always dancing, but this is the first time I've really paid full attention to what she's doing. Before now I was quite amused when I saw her making those movements, it made me laugh to see her stepping and skipping and rotating for no reason, but the longer I watch the more drawn in I get, I can't help myself, it's the most captivating thing I've ever laid eyes on. How is it so natural for her, to move without a care like that?

At first glance it seems like an erratic mess, but looking closer I see more to it than that; the dance she's doing right now looks like something trying to escape from somewhere: she'll move around slowly and then suddenly jerk in a new direction, as though she's come up against some kind of barrier. Her face is the calmest I've ever seen her look, she closes her eyes for long periods of time and her features are perfectly relaxed - no smirk, no expressive eyebrows, nothing, except this look of total peace.

Like when she was pretending to be a statue, her eyes dart open (though fortunately she doesn't hit me this time): she looks straight at me and slows her movements down, coming to a stop in front of me.

"If I'd known I could get you to stare like this I would've danced for you a long time ago…" she whispers suggestively.

"I wa-"

"Shhhhhhhhhh." My counter is stopped in its tracks by her noise, 'she can't do that to me…' I think irritably.

I wasn't staring… well, maybe a little bit, but not in the way that I think she probably means. I want her to know the _actual_ reason I was watching so intently.

My explanation never gets given.

Before I can open my mouth to address her behaviour she grabs both my hands, pulls me towards her in a gentle but definite way, and begins to lead me slowly around the room.

...

"You're very stiff," she remarks, "but you're in good hands now. Just let me do all the work and I'll make you feel like a new Gem."

And so I become part of Morganite's dance. It truly is _her_ dance because even though I'm half of our pair, she's in control: of where we go, of the shapes we make, of our speed, and for now, of me. Dancing with her is very easy; from the moment she swept me into her private world, she's led me and I've gladly followed. She more than makes up for my lack of artistry, and I'm grateful to whatever made her pick me.

Every move makes unspoken sense, and I find that I have the correct response to whatever she does; whether that's my doing or because she's so good at this I don't know. It amazes me how she directs everything, as though she knows exactly what we're going to do minutes before we actually do it, yet at the same time it never gets repetitive: the whole dance moves seamlessly from phase to phase without any pattern or goal.

I become totally wrapped up in what we're doing and soon the grid is left behind. I feel like this is happening to someone else and I'm just watching them, but this is me, and her, and I'm starting to really enjoy myself. I wonder if this is how she feels all the time, or just when she dances…

She can obviously sense my growing ease because very slowly, she relinquishes her leadership to me. Compared to hers my efforts are… less than noteworthy, but she still affords me the opportunity to lead her. Even when I bring us wildly out of step she's very patient with me, simply adjusting us and allowing me to continue as though nothing happened. Eventually I reach a peak, and fairly confident in my ability to dance uninstructed I try some more elaborate moves, which seems to please Morganite greatly. She smiles a strange smile at me, strange in that I don't see any triumph or hidden meaning in it for once, only happiness. It makes me smile as well.

We carry on dancing until I'm distracted by a brightening glow, originating from Morganite's chest.

"Come on Cel, don't stop! We've almost got it! Think about fusing with me!" she exclaims excitedly.

I try to keep our dance flowing but the reminder of what we're supposed to be doing brings back my tension. I'm thinking about fusion, but I'm panicking at the same time; I don't want her gem to stop glowing before mine starts. Morganite is calm though; once again she takes control and slows everything down:

"Relax, Celestine, there's no rush. Just do what we were doing before."

She's right, there isn't any rush, but her excessive eagerness didn't exactly help. Eventually we get back to our previous unhurried state, and soon after my gem joins hers in its luminescent display. Without any warning I get this falling feeling, and everything goes white.

I'm dimly aware of our two gems… somewhere, as I'm aware of faint voices all around; actually that's my voice… no, that's Morganite's voice, I think. If she's speaking to me then it's hard to work out what she's saying… are those her thoughts? I don't get to find out, because the feeling of weightlessness disappears far too quickly, and suddenly I'm back on the grid.

…

I know we must be fused right now because I was dancing with Morganite a minute ago, and now she's not here. And I'm a _lot_ taller; Blue had good reason to worry about unmanageable fusions if this is what a manageable fusion looks like, I must be at least four or five times taller than I was before! I feel so stiff again, like I've never moved in my life. I decide to stretch. 'Wow,' I say to myself, 'there's so much of me, I must be the biggest Gem in the kindergarten right now…'

What. Is. That!?

Oh my goodness, I have extra arms! Is that normal? I think so: the last fusion I saw had eight arms. I look at my gem - the one on my hand. I touch the gem on my chest with one of my other hands - and what I see is incredible: it's the same shape and size as mine but it's pink like Morganite's, though not translucent like hers, it looks cloudy... There I am: my usual pale blue is present within the gem, shimmering in random patches amidst all the pink.

But where's Morganite? She's here too, shouldn't I be able to hear her?

"Morganite?" I call out to the grid. Why do I still sound like me, we're a fusion so… This isn't right. Maybe we're unstable.

"Morganite, is this how it normally is? What happened to you last time?"

There's definitely something wrong. What if we're stuck like this? Oh my goodness! I feel weird. My gems feel weird.

"Morganite!"

"Celestine?"

I'm talking to myself, but my voice isn't coming from my mouth anymore, not my _usual_ mouth anyway, I now have another one somewhere around my chin. That's one too many for me. My gems start to glow, and then I'm falling again: a falling that turns into rolling as I'm forcefully ejected from my first fusion.

I look over to where I think Morganite landed, she's already getting back up so she must be okay. I'm fine as well but I choose to remain lying on the floor: that fusion did _not_ go well, and I'm going to enjoy a moments of quiet before we try to do that again.

…

"Celestine, are you alright?" Blue asks me in a concerned way, taking my hand and carefully studying my gem.

"Yes I'm fine. Thanks, Blue."

"Well then, on your feet."

From the way her demeanour suddenly straightens I can tell that something is up. Rising to my feet I see the others standing in a group, with Hematite standing to one side, her face impassive. Blue and I walk over to where everyone stands.

"Nice of you to join us, Celestine. I do hope that you enjoyed your rest."

"Yes, thank you, Director Hematite."

As Blue's unofficial second in command, I have slightly more room for error than the others when it comes to Hematite; even so, I'm very careful with what I say when I know she's around. I'm pretty sure that dealing with her is another form of assessment, like now: was that the right answer, or am I about to get admonished in front of everyone? From the way she steps in front of us and delivers her message, I must've passed my unspoken test.

"Batch 612." she greets us in her customary way.

"Director Hematite!" we acknowledge her as a group, using the title we have agreed upon. "I'll keep this brief. I want to congratulate you as a group, now that you're all here. I have carefully watched your exploits in the construct and every one of you has given an excellent performance. It's exactly what I want to see at this stage of your training. You're almost at the end now, and if you approach your last two challenges in the way that you've approached the rest, then your success in them is assured.

I've been observing some of your attempts at fusion, and what I've seen so far is satisfactory; I look forward to seeing the final results in a month or two. Keep up the good work. Commander Spinel, please continue with your lesson; batch 612, until next time."

"Thank you, Lieutenant General." Blue says humbly.

How long had she been in here, and how did I not notice her? I must have been more immersed in that dancing than I thought…

When Hematite has left the room, Blue says something that turns our growing smiles into fully-fledged laughter:

"I _told_ you she was impressed."

…

Morganite slinks towards me with an excited look on her face.

"So did you like your first fusion?"

"No, it didn't feel right. I think it was unstable. I was expecting to feel less like me, and I couldn't feel you there before you opened your mouth. Our mouth? Our second mouth, did that happen to you before?"

"Yeah, don't worry about that, that was pretty common. We got extra eyes and arms and new mouths and everything; some people could hear each other's thoughts. You should've joined in last time, it was fun." She asks again, "You really didn't like it?"

"No. But that doesn't matter; we should try again."

The look of disappointment that crosses her face is quickly replaced by a smile, but not quickly enough to go unnoticed; she agrees though, and we try once again to fuse. I thought it would be a lot easier now that I have an idea of what to expect, but that isn't the case. We dance and our gems glow faintly, but we don't manage to fuse again for the rest of the day. I think back to what Blue said about more stable fusions and conclude that the problem lies with me: Morganite is no novice and we already achieved it once, so I must have some underlying apprehension that's bringing us out of synchronisation.

I'm disappointed in myself: we were the first pair to fuse and now because of me, we're one of the four pairs yet to maintain a stable fusion and show it to Blue. She said not to worry because we have lots of time to practice, but normally either Morganite or I are the first to master a new technique, so I don't know why this is proving to be so difficult. When Blue dismisses us I bring up my concerns with Morganite.

"Morganite." I call out to her. She turns around and stands opposite me.

"Yes, Cel?"

"Thank you. You've helped me a lot with my dancing, you're a good teacher."

"It's nothing, I didn't really teach you anything. We just held hands and followed each other around for a while. I had fun." she says with a grin.

"I had fun as well." As true as that may be this isn't about having fun, this is about fusion, and I want us to be as good at it as possible. I make my move. "I think it was my fault that our fusion didn't go too well today. I want to do some extra practice with you, if you don't mind."

"You know... if you wanted to spend more time with me you could've just asked. I wouldn't have said no."

"That… What? That isn't what I meant."

"I know, I just wanted to see that face that you pull."

"I don't pull a face."

"Yes you do, it's like this." She shapeshifts, rearranging her face into an exact copy of mine. I burst out laughing at the expression she's given me: a subtle mixture of total surprise and mild irritation. I was trying to be serious, but that idea fades rapidly when she reforms the rest of her body, and I'm suddenly talking to myself.

"So you want us to practice? Cel, I would _love_ to practice with you. By the time we're finished we'll be inseparable…"

…


	7. The Intricacies of Pink Beryl

...

It's only now that I'm spending more time with Morganite that I realise how little I knew about her, compared to the other Gems. She talks so much, so loudly, so often that it feels like she's present all the time, everywhere; it gave me the false idea that I knew about her because she was so noticeable. The truth is that it's only a façade, one that we've created for her and she's chosen to reinforce. We only see as much of her as we've allowed ourselves to see.

Getting to know her better is like being back in the construct: every time I learn something new, other aspects of her character present themselves to me, craving to be explored. A long time ago I told myself that I would find out what it was that made Morganite so different to the rest of us, and as we continue to practice she slowly unravels the mystery for me…

When I thought that her dance looked like an attempt at escape I was right, in a way; its essence was the one that is shared by all of her dances, though it was entirely coincidental that that one in particular showed it so clearly. When she shimmies and shuffles, twists and arches, it is all for self-expression, and always has been. From when she first started to make her random moves and we would stare or laugh at her she never cared, not even then, because it's something she does solely for her benefit. She told me that she loves dancing so much because it makes her feel free, free to translate however she feels into movement; when she dances she can do and be whatever she likes, and no one can do or say anything about it. I'm sure that's why I dance so much better with her than I do by myself: when we dance I somehow share in her freedom, everything that used to matter becomes peripheral when we move together. Before, she was speaking a language that none of us understood, and now that I've been paired with her I'm speaking that language too.

Another thing that none of us has ever understood - but have definitely noticed - is her manner. Through spending time with her I now realise that many of her most prominent attributes are expressions of self in themselves, just like her dancing. It doesn't bother her to be thought of as conceited, showy or annoying; what seems to matter to her is being thought of at all. It's like her whole persona is declaring, "I am Morganite; you will take note of me as an individual **first**, and as part of batch 612 second." I told her as much. She looked very pleased.

Now, most of the time it isn't too difficult to make me laugh, but compared to the others, the frequency and ease with which Morganite makes it happen is amazing. She'll say something and I'll laugh, then she'll add something obscure, but somehow related to it and I'll laugh harder, and she carries on until I'm crying and I can't even speak. When she finally allows me the opportunity to stop, I always wonder, 'how does she think of all this?' It's probably how we've gone so quickly from just being people that work with each other semi-regularly, to actual friends. She seems to really enjoy making me laugh, and the laughs I have because of her are totally unreserved; I feel that sharing something like that is bringing us closer together. In just a couple of weeks she's managed to dispel any doubts I had about her, and the question of where her distinct sense of humour comes from intrigues me more and more.

As time passes she takes me further and further into the Morganite process, far below the surface, into the where she keeps her secrets. I feel proud of myself for being worthy of knowing things about her that no one else knows (except Blue, but she's the group confidant, she probably knows everything), things that I never would have expected: like how she knows how to get to the surface undetected, how she likes to sit and watch the moon and the injectors as they burrow into the ground, and how badly she wants to visit the Gem home world to see where our race comes from. Actually, most of her plans involve travelling or exploring, seeing the rest of Earth and eventually the universe.

…

"What are we doing here, on Earth?" she asks me.

"We're going to protect the interests of our race here, including the kindergarten, against any threats."

"Exactly! And when we're finished here, _then_ what are we gonna do?"

"Go to Homeworld… or another colony world and protect what we need to there."

"See, that's what we're _for_, what we were created for. Unless we get killed, Yellow Diamond will be giving us the same order **forever**. I'm not planning on getting killed, but doing the same thing for eternity sounds like a waste of _me_…" she says with a flourish.

"But that's always been the plan for us." It's true, but apparently that isn't justification enough for Morganite.

"Think about it, Cel: this place is a factory, they make Gems here. There's always going to be another batch, they can easily replace us." she says disdainfully. "After we've taken care of the Quartz problem, we'll go to another world that they're colonizing, and another after that, and that, and that. We'll just become part of the cycle when there's no reason for us to."

"We're so good at what we do though, and you're one of the best. Doesn't it make you proud that we're the first batch to have this particular purpose, from Yellow Diamond herself?"

"It's a great role, but there's so much more to see and do in the universe than someone's bidding. I'll do the training because it's useful, I'll do our job until we've killed all the rebels, I'll even hunt down and shatter Rose Quartz myself if it means it gets done faster. But when we've finished that task no one should expect me to repeat the same thing on a hundred different worlds."

…

And then it all starts to make sense.

When I understand how she feels about it all, all my observations of her are put into perspective; why she is how she is becomes apparent. I was right to think of her as different from the rest of the batch, but I was doing it for the wrong reasons, superficial reasons. She isn't different because of _what_ she says, _how_ she acts, or for anything else she _does_, but because of what drives those things.

Almost everything about her is linked to how different her view of the world is compared to that of the other Gems around the kindergarten, especially the rest of our batch. I think that's how she's able to make me laugh so easily: I'm amused by so much of what she says because it's unlike anything I've ever heard before, her unique way of looking at things presents them to me from new (and often hilarious) angles. She turns concepts completely upside down, and it's making me think more about my own views…

Of course, I now see that her humour is just one of many hints at her distinctive outlook, an outlook that makes it clear why she needs to feel free and acts as such at any opportunity. Everything that matters to her happens when we've brought an end to Rose Quartz's anticipated rebellion; we were made for a purpose, but that purpose is a secondary consideration for Morganite, a means to an end: when we've achieved that end she expects (for some reason) to be allowed the freedom to do what she wants, whenever she wants to do it. Until then, her being here is like trying to store a great deal of energy in one place: it defies the natural order of things because of energy's tendency to spread out. What we see - and now I know, a lot of what we don't see - of Morganite is her spreading herself out as far as she can: blurring the lines of our orders while never crossing them (or at least, never getting caught doing so).

I feel like I've become part of her… game? Whatever it is, by telling me her thoughts and what guides her actions she's involved me in it. She said she trusts me, which is good, and I _think _I trust her too - though with Morganite, it isn't a good idea to assume anything - but I'm not really sure what she's trusting me _with_. If it's the sneaking to the surface she's referring to, then I don't know how she does it or when she does it, and if it's about her ideas then who am I going to tell, and what would I tell them? It's not like she does anything that suggests less than total dedication to our mission, if anything, she looks like she puts more effort into our lessons than any of us: she excels in everything that we do and continually proves herself to be one of the best. Unless she told you you'd never even suspect that she has the aims that she does, which I guess has always been part of her plan.

…

Blue said that our fusion's size depends on us. She never mentioned it, but I'm convinced that her appearance also depends on us in the same way. It sounds glaringly obvious: of course our fusion looks like us (though according to the observers our fusion actually looks more like Morganite… Why doesn't that surprise me?), she's made of us, but what I'm talking about are two specific features of our first fusion, and how they've changed as the friendship between Morganite and I grows stronger.

The first thing we lose is that unnerving second mouth, the 'hidden' one: it was there one day, and the next time we fused it was gone. Two weeks after that our secondary pair of eyes disappears as well. When we first fused I didn't even have time to notice them because I was too busy freaking out, but when fusion stopped being so novel I realised that my field of vision was wider; feeling around our face confirmed that we did indeed have extra eyes (which you can easily poke yourself in if you don't realise are there), just above and more widely spaced than a 'normal' pair.

It's as though the body of our fusion is a reflection of our growing togetherness; togetherness brought about by sharing more of our private thoughts and feelings with each other. While we are fused we are totally united in purpose, and each of us trusts the other to achieve that purpose, though the means by which we plan to do so might differ. That seems to make the extra parts unnecessary: there is no need to talk over or against each other, and so there is no need for each of us to have a mouth; we have great confidence that two eyes is enough to see what needs to be seen, so the additional pair has become expendable. Even height doesn't appear to be exempt from the optimization of our union. I thought it was my imagination at first, but then Morganite started noticing it too: our fusion had been shrinking. It was only by fractions of a foot at first, but when it became significant we went to see Blue. She said that it would stabilize when we got even more in tune with each other, and for now at least, she's right. We've stabilized at maybe two and a half times my original height, giving us the smallest fusion of the seven pairs. But it doesn't feel like we've lost any speed or power or ability though: nothing feels 'less'… just different, like we're compressing everything we become into a much smaller space. When we form our fusion I feel so intense; she's just so full of potential. _We're_ so full of potential.

With all the changes I've observed so far, I've reached the conclusion that there is a 'perfect' version of our fusion whose default form would be physically indistinguishable from any non-fused Gem (apart from possessing two gems instead of one), and whose personality would be entirely separate from mine and Morganite's, just as Blue said. If our relationship continues to progress as it has so far, I expect that we can attain the kind of harmony needed for that fusion.

But at the moment she still has four arms and lacks a distinct personality. Control of our body periodically shifts between the two of us, with the one not in control at the time pushed into a sort of observational background state.

Morganite doesn't seem to mind at all:

…

"We're _**good**_ Cel; you don't need to worry about it. You worry too much about _everything_. Blue asked us for a stable fusion: are we stable? Well, we don't split and we're not fighting for control… sounds stable to me. How about you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Yes! _That_'s the word I wanted to hear! So we're stable and we've got time before the surface party thing. We'll get the mind link in time. …Anyway, we'd be more _synchronised_," she cries the word in the most jarring, high-pitched voice possible, causing several people to turn and stare at us, "if you'd be less like you for once, and more like me." she says, flashing me a grin which exposes her small, sharp teeth. "Now repeat: Morganite."

"…Morganite."

"Is."

"Is..."

"Right!"

"Right?"

"Yes I am, so now we can relax a bit. I know it's not the sort of thing you usually do, but just copy me and you'll get the general idea."

…

Although I don't like the sensation of incompleteness that comes from the missing element of our fusion, I concede. She _is _right after all: we've done what Blue asked us to do, so if we get nothing else done then we won't have failed. Since we were first partnered she's clearly rubbed off on me, because I find myself adapting to her laid back approach with surprising ease. Thus, we're in agreement that we can spend less time on fusion practice, so we do spend less time on fusion practice.

…

Before, I questioned why Morganite was being so nice to me: her asking to be my partner and the way she was acting even before that were so out of character, it didn't make sense. But there's been no trick, no sudden change in the way she's acted towards me since we started fusing, my fears have all come to nothing. From the beginning of our practice she's only ever treated me as though I'm a friend of hers and through that, she's made me more than happy to treat her like it's always been that way.

She takes full advantage of our familiarity, frequently asking me the kind of questions that would just sound intrusive from anyone else. Now, with the additional time to enjoy each other's company I decide to ask her something that I've been wondering about for a while:

…

"Do you remember how we were before… _this_?"

"You mean, before you started spending several hours of each day in my body?"

"You mean _our_ body… the one we share."

"Your body, my body, _our_ body; let's not be too specific. Yes… No? What was the question?"

I sigh. "You know how we used to be before… how you used to be so antagonistic towards me. Why were you like that?"

"That wasn't the question."

"No, but- I thought you forgot the question?"

"I didn't forget, you side tracked us."

"How… Okay, okay… Fine. The new question is 'why did you act that way'?"

She looks at me without answering for a moment, probably gauging how serious she needs to be.

"Because you're Celestine. Out of all of us you win the most, at everything. Everyone in the batch looks up to you; if Blue isn't around we all come to you for whatever. Even Hematite likes you!" I'm not so sure about that: I don't think Hematite 'likes' anyone... "To stand out to someone like you, you've got to at least be on their level, and then you've gotta bring something different to them."

It's my turn to not say anything, and in doing so I have proved that nothing is impossible… I've made Morganite blush. It's interesting to watch how the dark pink spreads over the usual light pink of her cheeks. She speaks, eager to do anything that will get us past this odd (but memorable) situation.

"Well say something!"

"You wanted to stand out to me?"

"Yeah, I thought that bit was obvious."

"Why?"

"Well who wouldn't? Like I said, we look up to you: you're smart, skilled… calculating. You're everything we're supposed to be, but you never polish your own gem about it. Instead of leaving the rest of us behind you're always pushing us forward, every one of us, even me. You're the badass leader of team 612; being noticed by you, it's… is… It mattered to me. I wanted to be more in your eyes than just another member of our batch."

"Thank you, Morganite... Really, thank you: compliments like that from _you_ mean a lot. And it worked -you've always stood out _very_ clearly. …But why do you think it's a good thing that I don't polish my own gem, that's one of the things that you really seem to enjoy doing…?"

She smirks at me.

"I do enjoy it, but if you had a gem like mine you'd want to polish it as well. Besides, people expect me to comment on my own brilliance, I wouldn't want to disappoint them by not doing my job. I do it because it's fun, and because it always ends in bantering with one of you guys, but at the same time I really respect the fact that you don't brag, even though you've got the most reason to."

"Thank you again… But 'bantering'? Really? …Barite chases you." I remind her how the verbal brawling that we so frequently enjoy usually ends.

"Yeaaaaaah. She does." Morganite replies with a satisfied, faraway smile.

…

To hear Morganite herself say those words is incredible. While we were in the construct she said that she admired me, but I never imagined she thought _this_ highly of me, and I'm glad that my efforts to help everyone have been appreciated. What's even better is knowing that she went out of her way to make an impression on me. I feel special; exhilarated that she thinks about me in a different way to the others, that I hold a unique position in her mind, like the one she holds in mine.

But she still didn't explain _why_ she wanted to capture my attention. I want to know, because then maybe I'd know why it makes me feel so good, and why all of my thoughts seem to be about her. It's so difficult to focus on anything else because nothing else is as fulfilling as the moments we are able to spend alone. When we have to part company or join the rest of the batch, I'm practically on automatic until we can get back to the nothing-in-particular that we do these days. Our private sessions are getting longer by the day, but the time we spend dancing and fusing gets shorter; the main event has shifted to talking, about anything and everything: me, her, other Gem occupied worlds, how one would get to unexplored parts of the universe, the Authority and more.

It's fortunate that fusion is what it is, because if I didn't get to work with Morganite as closely as I do then I'd have stopped getting things done properly. Actually, now that I think about it, I wouldn't feel the same level of attachment to her if I hadn't got to know her, which probably wouldn't have happened in the first place if this was any other topic. In fact, fusion is the only topic I can think of where we'd be in this situation. Morganite has always been crafty - well, all of us are, but it's especially noticeable with her - and now, between our partnership and her trying to grab my attention, it's obvious that she wanted us to be as close as we are from the beginning. I smile to myself: the best laid plans have near-certain outcomes, and Morganite's foresight has gained her my unwavering friendship.

* * *

Right now we're on grid two, and we have it all to ourselves.

We've cut down on the time we spend fusing, but we haven't stopped. This is one of those occasions that we're going to do what we actually came here to do.

I close my eyes and slowly extend my arms above my head, then bring them down in wide arcs while sliding one of my feet back. In a single, sweeping motion I raise myself from my lowered stance into a showy series of twirls, which end when I sense that there's someone standing in front of me. Stopping to see what the interruption is, I find Morganite's shocking pink eyes looking back into mine. She has an expression on her face that I've never seen before, like she's about to smile, but there's something else… it couldn't be nervousness, could it? The look is full of intent, and I know immediately that something is going to happen. Even though I have no idea what to expect, I'm overflowing with excitement.

We're _really_ close. I should step back, but the look that she's giving me is so alluring that I don't even try to move… I don't want to move. For once she's not saying anything, and I'm not going to either; if I do, I might… well, I want to ask her what she's doing, but at the same time I want to just go along with it.

I shiver in surprise when she places her hands on my waist, despite how softly she does it. All the affection I've grown to feel for her instantly rushes to the surface of my mind: I desperately hope that she has the same degree of fondness for me, and that what she's doing now is how she wants to show it. Whatever this is for, I don't want her to remove her hands.

As though she's heard what I'm thinking, she pulls me closer until her body is pressed against mine; my instinctive response is to loop my arms around her neck.

"I thought that we should try a more… intimate style of dancing for a while. To make that shared mind easier to get the first time." she says in what sounds like an innocent tone.

"Yes, yeah… Good idea." I reply with a little too much enthusiasm.

She smiles warmly and starts to move us in a gentle swaying motion. Is this the dance? Maybe there's more to come later, because at the moment this is more of an embrace. I'm certainly not going to complain though…

This dance is like none that we've ever done before. For a start our contact is prolonged: the main feature of what we're doing instead of just its conclusion, and although she said it is (and in the very back of my mind I know it is), it doesn't feel like fusion is its purpose. Everything around us seems less present, as though we're supposed to enjoy the dance for what it is, but the way Morganite initiated it was too slow and deliberate for it to _not_ mean something, or be just for fusion.

This, being entwined with her, feels wonderful… a lot better, I realise, than is probably advisable, considering that she's a friend and a batchmate. But if it's possible for her to make me feel this good, then that must mean that I feel something stronger than friendship towards her, in some part of my mind at least… And surely she can't be missing the unique quality of this dance, can she? She was looking at me in that way: if this was just about fusion there wouldn't have been any need for that look... There _has _to be something more to this, and to _us_…

I want this to lead somewhere else. I need for this not to be the furthest that she wants to go with our relationship.

But if there is something more she wants from me then why hasn't she said anything so far? Is that what this is about, is she going to say it now? If she is then I really hope she's going to bring it up soon…

A horrible thought occurs to me: what if I've completely misread where I stand with her? Could it be that all this time she wanted no more than my friendship? Maybe she's never mentioned anything before because there was nothing to mention… but that can't be right; what about all the other times that I've caught her watching me, or the way she invites herself into my personal space? Or how everything she says is laced with uncertainty: why would she speak so suggestively if… But no. Really, she's always been that way to me, it's just been more noticeable these past few weeks. I've never bothered to find out if she's like that with everyone: if she is, then there's nothing special about how she behaves around me, and that would mean that there's nothing special about this dance. That's a painful possibility to consider.

But as painful as it is it makes sense: I've heard all her plans for after the rebellion has been dealt with, but I don't remember any of them explicitly involving me. When we're finished what we're going to do on Earth, will I fade into the background as just another Gem she fought with? Would she _want_ me to go exploring with her, or am I just something to pass the time until then?

Was I… am I simply a distraction; another person that it was a fun challenge to interact with? It's been such a short time as well: I've probably started having these kinds of feelings too soon. But I can't help how she makes me feel, I didn't choose to feel this way, it just happened.

Ahhhhhh! This isn't me! I know what to do, how to react… I need to be logical. But how can I be when there's so little to go on, and so much uncertainty?

I just… I need to know if this is just one of her games, so I can stop offering her so much of myself if she has no intention of accepting.

The sudden planting of my feet takes Morganite by surprise, and she quickly adjusts her position to prevent us overbalancing. In an effort to put some distance between us I grasp her wrists and pull her hands away from my waist, but I can't bring myself to let go of her, and we remain awkwardly attached as we face each other.

"Hey, wh-"

"What am I to you?!" I blurt out.

"What?" she asks me, her confusion evident from her slight frown.

"What do I mean to you? …How do you feel about me?"

"Celestine, where is this coming from?"

"Please, can you just answer me this time? I can't think properly as it is."

…

Celestine's questions, hysterical demeanour and trembling hands tell Morganite everything that she needs to know.

It takes all of her considerable willpower to not free herself from Celestine's hands, and dance around in triumph at the huge victory she's just won over the world, the kindergarten and the rest of the batch. But, it's not quite time for that just yet: for all her usual composure and self-assurance, Morganite has discovered that there's also a very sensitive facet of Celestine; to celebrate so brazenly without first soothing her doubts would likely ruin the scenario it's taken her so long to set up.

When Blue implied that she was impatient, Morganite had to smile: she isn't impatient, not by a long way; it's just that some things don't require much deliberation, and some things do. Though they both overlap with much that is expected of her, there are actually only two objectives Morganite deems worthy of lengthy deliberation: matters of personal freedom, and matters of Celestine. It has taken her a long time to get the Gem she so adores here, thinking about her in the way that she obviously is, and it's taken a lot of restraint too… but Morganite never doubted that they would ultimately reach this point.

Finally, they're going to be moving in an unknown direction: this is something for the two of them to explore as a pair. Just she, and Celestine.

…

Morganite draws her arms away from me and I let her go. But instead of keeping her hands by her sides like I was expecting, she reaches out to me again, firmly gripping my shoulders.

"Okay," she whispers, "but calm down. You're shaking."

She's right, I am shaking… I hope it isn't permanent, because I can't actually stop myself.

"Cel, you're my favourite Gem in this whole place. And you're my best friend… You make this place more than just where we learn to shatter people. There's no one anywhere that matters to me more than you, except me, but that's… never mind. You make me want to dance, and the fact that I get to dance with you, and fuse with you… you don't know how happy it makes me. There's always been a special place for you in my gem, and there always will be. I'm sorry if I've never made it clear enough to you."

I feel like an idiot now. The scale of my overreaction is just embarrassing… But the fear was so real, it felt so plausible. I'm just so relieved that our connection wasn't just in my mind. I've stopped shaking now but tears are forming at the corners of my eyes instead, and I can feel my cheeks growing warmer; I'm almost certainly blushing. What is wrong with me today?

"Awwww don't please don't cry. It was supposed to be a good thing!" she says comfortingly. She takes her hands off my shoulders and wraps her arms around me, squeezing tightly. In this position I can't actually move enough to return the favour, but I don't mind.

"This _probably_ would have worked better if I'd let you use your arms…" she says after quite a while.

Taking that as my cue, I wriggle a bit and Morganite releases me. In no time at all we come back together again; we've ended up in the same position we were dancing in before, however this time my arms are around her waist and hers around my neck. She starts to laugh.

"So, you got me to say nice things about you, but was swapping places with me part of your cunning plan as well?"

"No, this is a bonus." I breathe into her ear.

"Oh, Celestine," she says mischievously, "you _are _a bad Gem, aren't you?"

"It's my friend; she's a bad influence."

Morganite gives me a small kiss on the cheek, making my body tense up. "Well give that to her when you see her. Tell her Morganite says thanks."

I dispense with the game that we're playing and place my lips on hers. She opens her mouth and explores mine with her tongue, inviting my own to follow in slow, lazy revolutions. This is the first time that Morganite have ever kissed, and it's only now that she's given me special access to her mouth that I can appreciate just how pointed her teeth are. I'm amazed that she doesn't cut herself with them.

Kissing is bizarre: I mean, I'm enjoying myself (a lot), but the hardness of her teeth combined with the soft wetness of the rest of her mouth, and having a foreign object in _my_ mouth… it's strange, but wonderful, just like her.

Eventually she withdraws from our kiss, taking care not to pull away too suddenly.

"Well that was… different." she says bluntly, gently stroking my top lip with her finger. "But I think we'll need to do it again at some point. You know, so we don't forget how to do it or anything."

"Yes, definitely."

"In the meantime… would you like to finish what we started?" she asks very quietly.

…

Now I'm sure that what was wrong has been corrected. Today is the day we achieve the fusion that we've been striving for, and from the desirous, hungry look in her eyes, Morganite knows it too.

I close my eyes and drift from side to side, leading Morganite into a regular, wave-like dance. This is the most relaxed I've ever been… I feel like I could just dissolve into Morganite at any second.

I don't have to wait long, because even with my eyes closed I can sense the brightness of glowing gems. The whiteness intensifies far beyond anything else, and I feel my body disperse.

…

_Hahahahahahahaha! Finally, we've done it! YESSSSSSSSS!_

_Ahhhhh, it's so good to be together at last! It's too bad they'll never get to see this… me… us? No, they've had their fun already! It's my turn now…_

_But that's not true either, is it? I _**_am_**_ their fun! I wish I could thank them._

_I will thank them. I'll do it by being me. I'm what they wanted, after all._

_That's a lot _**_to be_**_ though, the two of them… They're both so focused, and I'm just- I can focus too! If I'm both of them I can be just as focused, I can even be _**_more_**_ focused, because I'm something that neither of them are._

_I can't wait for everyone to see me. They're gonna love me! But honestly, your gem would have to be cracked not to love me: look at who I am…_

_Maybe there'll be another fusion on the grid! We could spar! Hahaha, I can't wait!_

_No, actually, I can wait… I'm gonna need to see Blue, aren't I? That would be the responsible thing to do, before we get to the fun bits._

_Let me do that._

…

"Celestine, Morganite, good to see you. That's a big smile; what have you done this time?" Blue Spinel asks, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Celestine and Morganite are unavailable at the moment, but I'll be sure to pass on anything you want to say to them." replies the fusion.

"Oh, wow… I wasn't expecting this level of unity so early, but congratulations! It's good to meet you."

"It's good to meet you too, in person. But it feels like I already know you."

"Yeah, I guess it would. So how do you feel?"

"Happy, because they're together now, and I get to be a part of that. And so excited to see all the things that they've seen, and meet the people that they've met for myself!"

"Well that's great, I'm very happy for all of you too. You didn't happen to meet any mineralogists on the way here, did you?"

"No. Do you want me to go look for some?" giggles the fusion.

"No, that's alright. I was just wondering what to call you: you really should have a better name than 'Pairing One', with what you've become. They tend to be pretty busy though, so you might have to wait until they assess you for a proper classification."

"Sure, thanks Blue. …What do you want me to do now?"

"Hmmmm… Well you _have_ to go and show the others: hopefully we'll be able to get a few more like you before I teach you the final topic. After that, I don't know. Go exploring or something, just don't go anywhere you're not supposed to go, and anywhere you don't fit, and don't bother anyone. Oh and I'd advise you to practice defusing as well. I know how special it is to be fused in the way the Celestine and Morganite are, especially the first time, but _you_ can't be here in their place. Eventually you're going to have to bring them back. I'm sorry." she says firmly, but with a look of genuine sadness.

"I understand." says the fusion.

"I knew you would. I'd say it's in your nature to be practical."

The new Gem smiles proudly, displaying her sharp little teeth.

…


	8. An Introduction to Summoned Weapons

_PoVi notes:_

_1) I've tidied up the previous chapters and made some edits (nothing major, but everything should make a bit more sense now. Flow better... you know.), most noticeably on chapter 4 ._

_2) I thought I had more notes, but I actually don't. Enjoy the story!_

* * *

...

"The day begins with the fourteen members of the _legendary_ batch 612 on grid nine: alert, relaxed, and ready for what will surely be another thrilling day of fusion. Taki-"

"Are you gonna do that running commentary until Blue gets here?" Tsavorite asks the fusion without sitting up.

"Yes! Yes I am!" the fusion replies enthusiastically, "Unless you have something better in mind for us to do?"

"...Nah." the green Gem decides after a while.

"Snow, any suggestions?"

"Nope." says the diminutive quartz.

"In that case, onward with the account! …Taking full advantage of Blue's pre-training absence the thoroughly enterprising, wonderfully creative, _extremely_ talented Gems have taken it upon themselves to extend their purview, and even as we speak are attempting to achieve a stable fusion with someone other than their allocated partner."

"This is so weird. It's like I'm listening to Morganite speak, but with Celestine's voice." comments Tsavorite, still lying on her back.

"Do you want to hear this commentary or not?" the fusion asks firmly, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.

"That _did_ sound like Morganite." Snow admits to Tsavorite.

"Actually, I thought that was a little more Celestine; you know she's got that tone she uses, like when she's telling us which kata to run through or something?"

"Oh… yes, I do hear that." Snow confirms with a grin.

"You two _do_ know I'm right here?"

"…Who was that then?" Snow asks.

"I'm going to say… Morganite, because Celestine's more likely to let you carry on until you say something stupid, and _then_ remind you that she's still there."

"Yeah, she's hilarious like that." the fusion agrees with a knowing nod, making Snow laugh.

"Well that's got to be Morganite again." she declares.

"Without a doubt." agrees Tsavorite.

"…"

"I thought you were going to continue narrating the day?" Snow eagerly reminds the fusion when a few seconds have passed in silence. Tsavorite is apparently just as keen on continuing what they've started, rising from her supine position to focus on the conversation better.

The fusion frowns.

"I was, but I think I've changed my mind thank you very much." she says as coldly she can manage.

The unfused pair look at each other uneasily.

"It's actually quite insulting, the way you're refusing to recognize my autonomy. I'm a Gem, with my own personality; not some _game_ to serve as entertainment for the two of you."

"Oh dirt! Sorry, Celanite," Snow apologizes, using the name the nickname that they've given the fusion until she gets her formal classification, "it wasn't meant to be an insult, we're not questioning your individuality or anything like that! It's just… even though you're _you_, you sound like Celestine, _and_ you sound like Morganite: you combine the two of them so perfectly, so being able to spot the little quirks each of them in you… there's just something amazing about it…"

"Would you mind saying that a little louder?" Celanite asks innocently.

"Pardon?" Snow replies, her expression one of total bewilderment.

"You know, so _everyone_ on the grid can hear you." she explains.

Tsavorite snorts with laughter.

"Ohhhhhh, you guys! Come on, that's not even fair! Why do you always do this to me?!" Snow whines.

"Because you still never see it coming, so it never gets old." Tsavorite answers, still chuckling. "Anyway, you're not alone this time: I had no idea what she was going to do before she did it. I was just as surprised as you."

"Yeah, yeah… Like you wouldn't've let me walk into it even if you had seen it coming…" Snow grumbles at her. Turning back to Celanite, she continues:

"I felt really bad as well; I thought we'd really offended you."

"You'd have to do more than that to offend me." she informs her with a cocky smirk.

"…Morganite." Snow decides wearily.

"Perhaps… But anyway, I'm glad you fell for the trick, because now I know that you care."

A broad, happy smile spreads over her face.

"Celestine."

"Perhaps..." Celanite winks at her.

…

_So while I myself am not a game (I'm more like a puzzle…), being in my presence has given rise to the one which Snow and Tsavorite continue playing as we wait for Blue to appear. The three of us are idling in the area reserved for high priority Gems that don't wish to do what everyone else is doing:_

_Practicing yet more fusion._

_It's like Celestine and Morganite set a trend, because in the three days since I presented myself to everyone, the other six pairs have also managed to produce one with a distinct, stable personality. It's as though seeing me confirmed that that kind of fusion was definitely possible, and predictably a race to be next to form one developed. That race finished yesterday, with the last pair achieving stability just as the afternoon was coming to an end._

_Now, you might think that after fusing repeatedly for however many weeks we'd be bored of it by now, welcoming the opportunity to lounge about for a while, but Blue said that there were __**two**__ more topics for us to learn. The consensus is that if fusion was the penultimate topic and it was as much fun as it was, then the final topic is going to be something __**really**__ special… Ultimately a combination of boredom, a desire to expand on what we've been taught, and burning- no, __**blazing**__ curiosity, has led the others to try achieving stability with everyone else in the batch; hopefully pre-empting Blue making us do it later._

_So why are the high priority Gems __**not**__ doing what seems like the logical and trendy thing to do? Well out of the fourteen of us, Tsavorite is the one that could most easily be described as lazy. That's not quite right, she's… practical: she __**never**__ bothers with things that don't need to be bothered with; she's content to do exactly what we're supposed to be doing and nothing more until Blue says 'good job, onto the next task'. Right now additional fusions are just that, additional; and as a result they'll become a concern of Tsavorite's when Blue gets here to make it so. _

_Her partner, Snow Quartz, is the easily the smallest of our group, but there's something about her (Blue thinks that it's something to do with her being a quartz) that creates much larger fusions than you'd expect from someone of her size and character. Her fusion with Tsavorite surprised Blue so much that she fused with them both to get an idea of what was causing their excessive largeness: Snow seems almost displeased that it's apparently her doing. __**Their**__ fusion is easy-going enough, but Snow doesn't want to risk a huge accident by fusing with some of the more excitable members of our group, so she's only fusing with Tsavorite until we're told to do otherwise._

_And as for me, I'm special. Of course by special I mean that I'm (at least, I think I am…) the only fusion that's been formed with something stronger than our group bond and directive to be fused in mind. My components are in love, and while I understand that they can't… that I can't always be here in the form that I am now, that doesn't stop every part of me saying, 'stay like this, for as long as you can'._

_I'm hardly going to object to that, am I?_

_…_

_After a few minutes, Blue bursts into the room - as far as one can burst through automatically sliding doors - with such speed that we're practically falling over each other in the scramble to be ready for whatever she has for us today. From the way she powered across the grid I thought that we might be in trouble for something, or that there was an emergency in another part of the kindergarten. But as she closed the distance between us I noticed the broad smile on her face; something that the others clearly haven't missed either, if our general reduction in haste is anything to go by. _

_The individuals move to stand in front of Blue, while the other fusions take a moment to separate themselves. With a sigh I commence my own de-fusion._

_I focus on what makes me __**me**__ and I see myself as my two components, standing there before me. As those who create me grow clearer, I feel myself become vaguer: less a distinct person and more a thought, or an idea (albeit a very persistent one), or a shadow of something. I feel myself being gently but definitely drawn in opposite directions, and a deepening darkness surrounds me as I fade away._

_Finally, the world goes black._

_And I perceive nothing._

…

"It's good to see you again." Morganite says quietly as we take positions in front of our mentor.

"It's good to see you too." I whisper back.

I give her a warm smile and lightly squeeze her hand before we separate.

"You're looking very pleased about something, Commander Spinel. Have you found yourself a celestine as well?" Fire Agate poses playfully, eliciting some snickering from the others (and an amused smile from me).

She's teasing, but there's some seriousness in the question: Blue's love life is something we've never actually heard anything about and yet, she's very knowledgeable on the subject of love; knowledgeable enough to give us - Morganite and I especially - guidance on the complicated feelings and situations we might (and do) find ourselves experiencing when we have the time for more _personal_ pursuits…

But today isn't the day that she reveals her secrets:

"That, Fire Agate o six twelve dash o eight, is not something that you should be distracting yourself, _or_ the rest of your batch with." Blue responds in kind, generating more laughs from us. "And if I look pleased then it's because I am pleased," she explains, "and when I tell you what we're going to be doing today you're going to look just as pleased." she beams at us.

"Just before that though, I'm sorry for being so late. The Boss wanted to see me about some last minute changes to a list we're going to need a bit later, and from there we had a brief chat about the 'surface party', as you guys have taken to calling the synchronous fusion demonstration event." she informs us with a measure of amusement. A few people turn and grin at Morganite, who shrugs comically. "I'll tell you more about it closer to the time, but you guys have nothing to worry about. In fact, I think you'll quite enjoy having a captive audience to show off to…"

Then the brilliant smile she came in with returns to her face: it's impossible not to feel excited with Blue looking the way she does. I can't wait to see what it is that's put her in such an animated state.

"Alright, so finally we're here! This is the last thing I'm going to be teaching you before you're ready to go off into the world; I'm **_really_** hoping that you guys'll love this as much as I've been imagining you will. Now, watch this…" she says, flashing her teeth with the biggest smile I've seen all day.

As we've seen her do before she pulls up the zip on her left-arm sleeve, baring her gem; it glows, and for a split second we look on in expectant silence: there's no device to receive any input from her gem, she isn't fusing and lights are on, so she isn't going to be illuminating anything. I don't need to look around to know that thirteen other pairs of eyes have grown as wide as mine, as what looks like the hilt of a glowing sword materialises from the dark blue rectangle. She pulls on the shining handle and a long, white shape extends from her gem, curving slightly as it's drawn out. When removed entirely, the shape straightens and gains definition, before appearing properly in a short flash of light.

The sword she's now holding is easily the most beautiful weapon I have ever seen, its decoration and shape marking it out from the very uniform ones we've always used. The lustrous, silver blade glints in the artificial light of the room; its slender form tapering to a dangerously sharp point. What really sets it apart from other edged weapons is its hilt: a series of pale, yellow-gold spirals and loops that form an intricate cage around her hand; at the pommel, the cage curls around a large blue sphere the same shade as her gem.

We stare incredulously at Blue, who laughs: apparently this mystifying development doesn't call for as much surprise as we're giving it. Never has she or any of our other instructors mentioned that they could produce a weapon in this way…

"This," she says proudly, gesturing towards the sword with her left hand, "is my rapier; my personal weapon. I created it myself a long time ago, and today I'm going to teach you how to create your own. Back home, the art of creating and then learning to summon your weapon is a very special part of a Gem's life; we made sure not to give you any hint of the ability before now because you're all so inquisitive, and we knew you'd attempt it by yourselves. But it's important that it's done just right." she pauses, extending her sword-arm; the weapon glows and then disappears. We don't give her the chance to continue:

"That's _your_ weapon!?"

"You mean we get to use different weapons… from each other?"

"Can you store normal weapons in your gem as well?"

"What is it made of…?"

"GEMS!" Blue raises her voice over our noise, silencing us immediately. "How many times do I have to tell you not to interrupt?"

That is a very good question, which none of us volunteer an answer to.

"I know you'll want to know everything about this _right now_: I felt exactly the same way when I was where you are… but trust me, we'll get to the exciting part a lot faster if we tackle the basic theory with some structure. So _pleeeease_, no more shouting out questions while I do this, okay?"

"Okay!" we reply with rather too much enthusiasm…

"You say that now, but I'm starting to doubt whether you can help yourselves. You're lucky the Boss isn't here you know, she wouldn't be anywhere near as soft with you…" but she smiles affectionately at us, and we grin back at her.

"Anyway, everyone take a seat and listen carefully."

We do as instructed and position ourselves on the floor. When everyone is comfortable and has an unobstructed view, Blue carries on with the lesson:

"The first stage of weapon summoning is the design of the weapon itself: you can't summon something until it exists for you to summon, so your first job is to bring your weapon into existence; and the first place that any Gem-made object exists is in a Gem's mind.

To be able to take full advantage of the ability to create a weapon you need to know their properties, and to understand where those properties come from -and what a personal weapon is and isn't capable of you need to understand the _nature_ of a personal weapon.

When it's summoned for the first time, a person's weapon becomes a part of them; as of that moment it isn't just an idea anymore, it becomes an actual, executable 'thing'. In the same way that the details of their form are stored within their gem, the design of their weapon will then be stored there too. …One of you asked what my rapier is made of; well the simplest answer is that it's made of hard light: my sword is just a specialised manifestation of the same mass my gem projects to give me physical form."

Out the corner of my eye I see Nephrite calmly but purposefully raise a pale green hand.

"Yes?" Blue acknowledges her.

"You said your _rapier_ was your personal weapon… It's your only one, right? You couldn't just change it into something else if you felt like it?"

"No I couldn't. Even if I did want something different my personal weapon is, and always will be my rapier."

"Okay, so… -the way you said it, creating your personal weapon sounds a lot like making changes when you regenerate; so if your body and your clothes aren't limited to a single form, then why is your weapon -once you've summoned it for the first time?"

"Good, I'm glad you've picked up on the similarity between the two exercises, because that similarity is where the answer to your question comes from. When you 'permanently' change your form through regeneration there are certain aspects of yourself that you can't change, aren't there? Can you list me a few, very quickly?"

"Uhh… the colour of your body and hair, the position of your gem, general size…" Nephrite hastily recalls.

"Exactly. From the moment your body is projected from your gem from the first time, there are some things that you just can't change -shapeshifting aside. A Gem's personal weapon is exactly the same: with a lot of practice you can modify its surface appearance, but its essence, what makes it what you decided it would be in **_that_** moment… that remains constant from when you first bring it out of your gem."

Blue's explanation causes several hands to shoot into the air.

"Ah." she says flatly, considering us for a couple of seconds. "Okay keep your hand up if your question isn't about the _other_ properties of summoned weapons."

All the hands drop.

"Alright, we'll move on if you've all understood me so far.

I'd say the most important thing -well, one of the most important things to include in your design, is creativity. These are going to be _your_ weapons, so you've got total control over every aspect of them. You can use any texture, any colour, any material -so to speak, that you want. We've trained you to use a wide variety of weapons and fighting styles, so use them! You can base your weapon on something that you've used before, combine aspects of more than one weapon; even if you haven't used it before, or it doesn't actually exist yet, if you know in your mind that that's the weapon for you then go for it. …If you can imagine it, you can create it.

But as you imagine, remember that your summoned weapon is a product of your gem, so it's as different from manufactured weapons as your gem is from the average precious stone. For example, your weapon doesn't have a specific size: let's say you've created a very basic, very practical dagger, but you get thrown into a situation where your opponent has a sword. I'm sure all of you can think of a dozen other ways to come out on top, but if you wanted to engage them on a more equal footing you could literally adjust the dimensions of your dagger to give yourself an improvised sword. And it'll be easy for you because the process works on the same principle as shapeshifting. …Even though you'll have a preferred size that you usually summon your weapon at, what I want you to understand is that you don't have to choose one weapon over another solely because you think it's size might be an issue."

…

Now _this_ is getting interesting:

Two months ago I had no idea that I would be fusing, with Morganite, and enjoying it. Two days ago I had no idea that it was possible to conjure a weapon of my own design from my gem. I can't even imagine what I'm going to learn in the next two hours, but this is a really promising start…

…

Whatever questions or interjections the others had are suppressed for the moment, and taking her cue from our enthralled silence and expectant faces, Blue moves on.

"Another particularly useful property summoned melee weapons have that manufactured ones don't, and something else to think about as you design yours, is that they can deal significant damage to a target _without_ having to come into contact with it."

Once again Blue draws her rapier from her gem. Without another word she turns to face the wall to our far left, points the sword at it and pauses briefly as an intensifying, dark-blue glow begins to emanate from the blade, and a hum of rapidly rising pitch echoes around the room.

Without warning, the light that's accumulated in her weapon is ejected from its tip as a narrow bolt. As soon as the projectile enters the air an abnormal quiet permeates the space: a ringing sound - seemingly emitted by the bolt itself - is somehow drowning out everything else, despite how faint it is. The twinkling white streak races across the grid with such speed that it's barely there at all, but even if you manage to miss its flight there's _zero_ chance of missing the moment when it reaches its destination…

Sound returns with a vengeance in the form of the sharp "_BANG_" that the projectile makes when it explodes on the wall. The contact gives off a flash so bright that I automatically shut my eyes; just in time to feel the pressure wave pass through me (a rather unpleasant sensation). Then, an instant later, the blast wind rushes back towards the site of the explosion, forcefully ruffling my hair and causing me to screw up my face as it blows past.

When I open my eyes the first thing I notice is the wide, deep, vaguely circular crater that's been blasted into the wall's once-smooth surface. I'm just about able to keep my mouth from falling open in surprise at this occurrence, and like a few of the others I look around to see what the everyone else is thinking: there are some open mouths, a couple of raised eyebrows and three or four very impressed smirks. Strangely however, Morganite shows none of these; her expression is stern, and Blue has her undivided attention…

"From what I've told you so far, can anyone suggest how I might've done that?" our mentor asks us in a clear, firm voice.

Her tone snaps me out of my awed daze, and I hastily set about thinking of an answer to the question. There was nothing unusual going on with her gem (though admittedly I wasn't actually looking at it: the glowing and the improvised redecoration were far more interesting), but that's where her weapon comes from, and the light jet definitely originated from her weapon… so the two are linked in some way.

It's vague, but it's a start.

I put up my hand.

"Celestine." Blue addresses me, sounding pleased, "What are your thoughts?"

"My thoughts, are that your gem is constantly outputting energy, so your weapon must act as a conductor; allowing you to channel the excess from your gem into that… blast."

Blue flashes me a smile. Clearly I haven't disappointed.

"Concise, and absolutely right." she says to me before turning to the group at large, "Because you're already focusing some of your gem's energy to summon and maintain your weapon, it becomes a lot easier to discharge energy after that because there's a tool: a conductor -or funnel you can then direct that energy _through_, as concussive blasts or beams."

"So if I wanted to, I could take on a group of people without even having to get near them?" Fire Agate interjects.

"You could… but I wouldn't advise it unless it was completely necessary." Blue remarks.

"Whyyyyy… not?"

"Well for a start it would make a lot of noise and light, which isn't ideal for a lot of the work you'll be doing. But more importantly you don't want the energy demands you're putting on your gem to outstrip what it naturally supplies."

"Oh yeah, that- Yeah, okay."

She nods, signalling that she's got it now.

"Actually, it's good that you've asked me that, because this _and_ weapon size are both related to energy. If you think back to when you first began shapeshifting, and you tried to maintain a larger or more complicated shape than your default for long periods of time, how did you feel?"

"Slow."

"Tired!"

"…Heavy."

"Weak." we offer.

"And you felt like that _because_?"

"Because mass and energy are interconvertible, so any mass you project from your gem is a drain on its energy as well, and obviously if you're draining too much of your own power source you're not gonna be able to function at that level long enough to do anything worth doing. It's an energy balance: if you take it out, you're gonna have to put it back in at some point." Morganite answers with piercing directness.

…

When we were younger, Morganite's catchphrase was 'I'm bored'. But as we've grown she's developed a number of ways not just to express that sentiment, but to guide whatever she's bored _with_ in the direction that she wants to go. Blunt elucidations have become something of a specialty of hers, demonstrating that she's fully engaged with the lesson _and_ that she wants to speed things up, thus getting her point across while making any reprimand for it less likely.

Slightly less likely…

Depending on the instructor…

Anyway, I thought she was looking a little severe, and now I know why.

…It suits her well though, the 'studious Morganite' look. I've seen it before, the intensity of it… but before now it's never occurred to me how attractive it makes her look: how the expression compliments the width of her face and her strong jaw, the way her eyes still manage to convey the merest hint of mischief. She looks so beautiful, so distinguished, so _powerful_…

And she chose _me_ over anyone else.

I'm so pleased with myself that I can't help grinning, then I realise that I'm staring in the middle of the lesson and blush, hurriedly turning to look at something that isn't her…

…

I come back to the room at the end of the surprised silence Morganite brought on when she made everyone else's answer redundant:

"Thank you, Morganite…"

"Your welcome, Blue." she responds innocently, at which Barite sighs loudly and rolls her eyes.

Blue regards Morganite for a little longer, then obviously decides whatever it is she's deciding (or gives up on the thought altogether) because she smiles and slowly shakes her head.

"I know I'm repeating myself," she tells us softly, "but it's crucial that you have the similarities between your body and your weapon -_and_ why those similarities exist, clear in your mind as you create, summon and use your weapon.

But as Morganite said, the higher above normal the power output of your gem is, the shorter the time you're going to be able to sustain that output for. You've had experience of feeling depleted from shapeshifting: the same thing will happen to you if you take resizing your weapon or energy channeling to extremes -which you won't, because you're all sensible enough to work within the limits of your gems."

As a group we nod our assent and Blue continues.

"So I've covered what I think are the most important elements to consider in your design, and you guys look like you're still with me. Are there any questions before I move on?"

It appears that no one has any questions, but just as Blue opens her mouth to carry on, Amethyst thrusts her hand into the air.

"Yes?"

"What would happen if you went just... all out, and channelled **all** your energy into one _massive_ explosion?" she asks excitedly.

"You wouldn't make it to the point of actually 'exploding' anything: your body would deteriorate to the point that you need to regenerate long before you got anywhere near discharging that amount of energy. …Your _weapon_ would probably explode before that anyway. Imagine the rate at which you'd need to transfer energy from your gem to keep it completely drained: you wouldn't be able to contain it all in your weapon, and if the explosion that followed didn't destroy your gem on the spot then you'd better hope there's nothing hard around for it to collide with…"

"I would _love_ to see someone do that to themselves..." Menalite says evilly; her voice dripping with ill intent. "From a safe distance though, _obviously_…" she quickly clarifies before anyone can say something ironic. When we're finished laughing at her, Blue asks us once more:

"Any other questions?"

We remain silent, and one or two people shake their heads.

"Okay then there are just a few last things I want you to be aware of. Summoned weapons are a lot more durable than manufactured ones, but they aren't indestructible. You won't have to worry about rust or fatigue, but apply the right amount of stress and your weapon will break just like a normal one would. On the plus side if it does ever break you can just summon a new one -new in the sense that you can summon your weapon as many times as you want to, and it'll be in perfect physical condition every time.

Depending on your weapon you might want to have multiple copies of it summoned at the same time, and that's easily within your power; with a little practice you'll even be able to produce those copies in one summoning. Once you _have_ summoned your weapon it'll persist until you will it to be gone, or it's destroyed, or _you're_ destroyed, or you just don't need that copy anymore. So even if you get disarmed you won't be at a disadvantage for long, and your weapon can never be used against you -unless you let it."

My mind starts to wander, attempting to conceive a scenario where one would gain an advantage from allowing the enemy to wield their weapon, but is quickly stopped when I notice the sudden widening of Blue's smile.

"All. Right." she declares triumphantly, clapping her hands together and taking a moment to survey us. "The way I was originally going to do this was that once we'd covered the elements of design, I was going to get you to spend an hour or two visualising: putting some serious thought into your own weapon before I tell you about the summoning process. But I realised that that isn't the most effective way for you all to learn this." she explains happily. "Some of you might want to have your weapon completely planned out in your mind before you even think about summoning it, while others might prefer to be given all the information at once and be left to do their own thing. Some might want to ask questions until they feel confident that they're headed in the right direction, and others will know what direction they want to go in very quickly, with very little help.

It's hard to know how to guide a group like yours through this, because even though you're all from the same batch you weren't designed to be uniform; so your weapons and how you summon them won't be either.-"

…

That word, _designed_… It's interesting.

Blue never makes a big deal of the difference between her and the fourteen of us, but every so often she'll use a certain phrase -or word, like 'designed', which reminds me that that difference is there. It's kind of odd to think that nobody _made_ her, as such: the conditions were right and her gem formed on its own, no input from anyone else. But with us… with all kindergarten-made Gems, somebody had to develop a way to make what naturally occurs on Homeworld work on other planets, and using that knowledge they created every single one of our seed crystals...

I think that's why so many people seem to have a problem with our batch: we were created - unnaturally - for a purpose, and from what Blue says it sounds as though there are a lot of rules concerning purpose on Homeworld; but because Hematite doesn't run the kindergarten like Homeworld, and because we've never spent any time there we don't behave how kindergarten Gems normally do - which **_really_** bothers some people.

The way they act… it's like they think we think we're special because we're not all the same variety, or because we're from earth or whatever…

But we don't.

Once we've created our weapons we'll turn them upon our adversaries, just as we were made for. Just like any other kindergarten Gem would…

…

"-And that's why I'm not going to be teaching you how to summon your weapons. The most I, or anyone else can do for Gems in your position is describe how we summon ours, and using those examples you're going to teach yourselves.

I'm **_so_** excited because there's so much scope when it comes to weapons and summoning, and so much that could, or couldn't come into play, depending on you individually.

I just… -_Ahhh_! I can't wait to see what you come up with!"

I would love to have seen how Blue reacted when she was having this lesson. If simply teaching us can make her enthuse this hard, then her as a student must've been quite spectacular...

"Okay." she says once she's regained herself, "I'm almost done with my part, and you'll be very pleased to know that in a minute I'm going to stop talking and send you on your way. But first, you need to go up to the observation room and collect a tablet computer each, and I'll finish when you come back."

As I'm standing up Morganite rolls backward between two people into a handstand. Still upside-down, she turns toward me on her hands, spreads her legs out horizontally and then draws them together again, very gently lowering the limbs until her feet touch the ground just behind her hands. Taking care not to bump into me, she straightens up.

"Well isn't this a coincidence…?" she says with a smirk.

"Not really, I've been stalking you." I drily inform her.

She starts to laugh.

"Well seeing how you've caught me, I may as well tell you that me and my friends are all going to get tablet computers, then we're gonna send each other witty comments and make weapons and stuff. Care to join?" she asks, extending an arm for me to take.

"I would love to." I say as I link my arm with hers.

"You two are ridiculous you know." Barite says flatly.

"And you, my impressively well-built friend, are jealous!" Morganite gleefully announces.

"As if! You look li-"

"Jealous, jealous, jealous, jealous… _jealous_!" Morganite cuts her off and dances up to her, poking her squarely in the chest as she emphasises the last word. Barite snatches at her hand a fraction of a second too late and misses, and in a swirl of pink Morganite rolls away from her and sprints off. As was inevitable, Barite immediately gives pursuit.

"I'm going to poof you when I catch you!" she threatens.

"You have to _run_ if you want to catch me: that's how this works!" Morganite retorts.

Barite growls angrily.

"Cel! I'll get you a tablet, okay!" yells Morganite from across the room.

"Okay!" I yell back.

"Hey, can you get me one too!?" Tsavorite shouts to her.

"I've only got two hands!"

"That's alright! I can wait for you to make the second trip!"

…

The group makes its way to the long wall behind us, towards the large rectangular window that allows those in the observation room to look down at what's happening on the grid. When they get close enough a small entrance appears in the wall, and after a few seconds I see them on the other side of the glass.

Whilst they retrieve the tablets, the rest of us make small talk as we wait. It isn't very interesting, but thankfully we don't have to wait very long before the entrance reappears on the wall, and the other members of the batch hurry back so the lesson can resume.

…

When we've reassembled, Blue explains what we're going to need the tablets for.

"So I mentioned a list earlier; if you look in the 'documents' folder on your tablet you'll find a group folder for your batch with the list already inside. The file is actually a spreadsheet containing the identification code, gemstone variety, role and other information about a number of Gems in this kindergarten. These people have very kindly agreed to show you their weapons and explain how they summon them to give you some ideas.

You'll notice that there are quite a few scientists on the list -and actually, roughly the same number of those that aren't are involved in research of some form anyway. Because of the work that they're doing they've given me a very specific set of times when they're happy for you to see them. **_Do not go and speak to these people outside of those times_**: some of them needed _a lot_ of persuading to agree to this and they will **not **be pleased with you _or_ me if you interrupt them. You know how the scientists can be sometimes, especially with your batch…"

…

"Hey, there's a folder with my name on it." Sodalite whispers to Moss Agate.

"There's a folder with all of our names on…" mutters Moss dismissively, a little annoyed that Sodalite started nudging her _after_ she'd got her attention.

"I can see that, but… whatever." Sodalite says, already moving onto something else. "Mine's empty," she comments disappointedly, "and yours is locked."

"Why are you trying to get into my folder?!" hisses Moss.

"I was just taki-"

"Is everything okay over there?" demands Blue.

"Yeah, sorry. …But what are these folders for?" Sodalite asks, holding her tablet up and gesturing at her screen.

"If you'd been listening then you'd know I had just started explaining that."

"Sorry."

"The folders are for your notes: any videos or logs you record, and any information you want to take down as you go along goes in your folder.

As I was saying; since about an hour ago your batch was given full access to all the texts in the database about summoned weapons, so if you want to make copies of anything then they can be stored there too. To encourage you to work individually on this, the only person who has access to your folder is you, unless you change the settings. You are allowed to show each other what you're doing and share ideas, but this is your opportunity to be selfish… focus on what _you're_ doing, not on what the others might have done, or are trying to do.

The last thing I'll say is that if you do end up creating a weapon you're unhappy with it honestly won't be the end of the world. I've known Gems that have completely changed their main fighting style to use their weapon more effectively: they used what they thought was a huge mistake to make themselves better at what they do. I want you to think long and hard about this, and do it to the best of your ability, but at the same time this is supposed to be fun. If you're finding it difficult, or you're worried about making a mistake then that's okay, just come and speak to me or any of your other instructors, or just take a break. Seriously, it's just under a month until the surface party so you've got plenty of time to think -or not think, if that's what you need at any given moment.

And that's it.

Work hard, enjoy yourselves and I'll be here if you need any help. Talk to people on the list, do some reading, meditate; whatever works for you. Oh and don't lose your tablets! It'll be hard to keep track of you when you're all in different places: if I need to see you, or you can't find me then we can communicate on the internal channel.

Now get going."

…

* * *

_So, obviously, I.F. isn't dead! It just takes a while for me to write anything these days. Still, if you've been waiting for this then thank you for your continued interest in the story, and I hope this chapter isn't a disappointment._

_If you have anything to say about any aspect of the story then please do, it's useful to hear the positive and the negative, and to see what I've missed entirely. Suggestions or ideas are most welcome as well._

_Also, if you know a lot about/are interested in how the Star Wars galaxy is connected to/fits into the rest of the universe, then it'd be good to discuss that with you (it's for a crossover story I may write)._


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